**A Review of Three Summer Reads**

In this review, I want to share my thoughts on three summer reads that I recently finished and absolutely loved. First up is "Sarah Bernard" by Tammy Ireland-Pearson, a book that flies under the radar for many readers.

I really enjoyed this book because it reminds me of the writing style of another favorite author, Tamiya Ireland Stone. The story follows an illegal relationship between two characters, which is a heavier tone to what you might expect from a light summer read. Despite its serious themes, I found the book to be engaging and well-written. If you're looking for a light read with a deeper theme, I would definitely recommend "Sarah Bernard". It's a great choice for anyone who wants to get lost in a story that explores complex issues in a thought-provoking way.

Next up is "A Summer of Salt" by Katrina Leno, a book that captured my heart from the very first page. This short and sweet novel tells the story of Georgina and her twin sister Mary, two young women who have grown up with magical powers. The family's gift is tied to their surname Fern, and each member has a unique ability - their mom can make potions, Mary can float like a balloon, and Georgina hasn't yet discovered her power. As the story unfolds, we learn that their 18th birthday is looming, and if they haven't found their power by then, it's gone for good. The book follows their last summer at by the sea, where they must come to terms with their powers and their impending move to the mainland.

I adored "A Summer of Salt" because of its beautiful writing style and descriptive language. Each place the characters visit in the story has a distinct tone - the graveyard feels cool and late-fall-like, while the beach is warm and sun-kissed. The author's use of language is nothing short of magical, making me feel like I was transported to the island of by-the-sea every time I read about it. I also appreciated how the book tackles a serious issue in a gentle and respectful way. If you're looking for a summer read with a touch of magic, "A Summer of Salt" is an excellent choice.

Finally, there's "Remus" by Jessica Brody, a book that reminded me of my favorite childhood novel, Practical Magic. This story takes place on the island of by-the-sea, where every year, a rare and exotic bird named Annabella appears to bring magic to the town. The characters are all young women with magical abilities, each tied to their surname Fern. As the story unfolds, we learn about Georgina's struggles to find her power and Mary's desire to escape the island and make a life for herself on the mainland.

I loved "Remus" because of its whimsical and magical atmosphere. The author's use of language is poetic and evocative, making me feel like I was part of the story from the very beginning. Each place the characters visit in the book has a distinct tone - the graveyard feels dark and mysterious, while the beach is warm and sun-kissed. The book also explores some serious themes, including identity and belonging, in a way that's both gentle and thought-provoking.

In conclusion, all three of these books offered something different for me as a reader. If you're looking for a light summer read with a touch of magic, "Sarah Bernard" is an excellent choice. If you want a book that's more substantial but still captures the essence of summer, I would recommend "A Summer of Salt". And if you want a magical and whimsical story that will transport you to another world, then "Remus" is the perfect pick.

**Rating Breakdown**

* "Sarah Bernard": 5/5 stars

* "A Summer of Salt": 5/5 stars

* "Remus": 5/5 stars

**Recommendation**

If you're looking for a summer read with a touch of magic, I would highly recommend any of these three books. They offer something different from one another, but all share a common thread of whimsy and wonder.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone today I am here to do another matter of you if you're with Matt reviews on my channel it's where I take three of my most recent reads I try to keep them all the same genre and review them all for you in one video so what I do is I talk about the book is about I tell you what I rated it what I liked and what I didn't like today is a matte review full of why contemporary all of them are pretty recent releases just kidding I think to whom came from last year so it's they're all black contemporary so there you go they're always in the same genre as always I believe time stands down below if you want to hear about one particular book over the others the books I will be talking about today is hot dog girl by Jennifer Dugan goodbye perfect by Sarah Bernhard somersault by Katrina Leto without further ado let's begin so the first book I want to talk about is the most recent release and that is hot dog girl by Jennifer Dugan I bought this book last month and I was very highly anticipating it it's one of my most anticipated reads of the year probably for the summer honestly and sadly I did not laugh it this book follows a character named Eloise Liu who works at a theme park called like the Magic Castle like theme park think of it as not quite Vegas Disney World probably around I don't know like I'm just a smaller theme park that was within just a really small theme park not even I would say a moderate-sized probably a small one and Magic Castle is kind of your like kind of beat up theme park every summer Liu works there and this is her second year as the dancing hot dog and she has a best friend that works at the carousel has a brand that she has a crush on that is a like pirate that does a diving show his girlfriend is a princess and there's also a prince a lot of people that work in this Magic Castle play um dress up and have jobs and some like that so basically Lou wants this to be the best summer ever before she goes into her senior year and she also learns that this summer Magic Castle playground it's officially closing for good and she's very sad about it because that's where a lot of her memories lie before her mother left and then also with that going on she kind of goes into it with a hesitation for the summer and she also has a crush like I said on a guy that is like a diving pirate if you will Nick only problem is Nick is seeing a girl and he's been seeing the same girlfriend for a while named Jessa I believe and Lou come the scheme to break them apart and so that what that is what this book is all about just a summer working at a theme park and I thought that it was gonna be just that one of my guilty pleasures with movies especially is theme park movies I love the way way back I love Metro and I don't know it is about theme park movies I just adore them so I thought reading a book about a theme park would just be amazing and I did enjoy that aspect of the book but that's the only thing I enjoyed I gave this book a 2 out of 5 now I don't give those out lately yeah I'd really give those out because I just don't like doing that but sadly I did not love this book I it's so sad because that may sound amazing the cover is amazing I mean the cover is everything I want to keep this book forever because of the cover but I did not love it so what I didn't love about it was the character loo now this is gonna be a little bit hard to review because I am 30 years old so I read a lot of way and I'm not within the Brack I'm not within the age johner that it's really geared towards so I'm fully aware of that now some why books I feel characters are very juvenile and things like that and I understand because that is their character that's who they are that's their age but some line books the characters are very mature and that's exactly how it is was any sixteen seventeen you're out there some are gonna be juvenile some are gonna be mature I fell in the more mature side when I was sixteen seventeen because of what happened to me in my life a lot of other sixteen seventy year olds they might be more mature because what's going on their life but some might be juvenile easier for me to read the why books with the mature Wyatt character and it's harder for me to read a book with a juvenile Wyatt character and that's not to say they're acting out of character they're acting wrong there's sixteen seventeen they're young they have a lot to go on but Lou was just a hard character to read for me not only was she juvenile I thought she was very selfish and I don't know if that's like a normal teenage thing I'm not a teenager I can't say that but one of the main reasons I didn't like this book is because Lou's whole agenda for the entire summer was to break a couple up she really had a crush on this guy named Nick Nick had been seeing this girl for years and years Nick was very much in love with this girl but Lou wanted him so she to find and schema way to break them up so she could be with Nick which is already a huge red flag I don't know why she would think that that's very selfish of her then it gets even more selfish she decides to make her breast friend Seeley and her act like they're a couple so they can entice Nick to like you know maybe if losing a relationship who want her back because she's unavailable and that you know she kind of forced her best friend to be in a relationship or a fake relationship with her and her best friend didn't want that and her best friend was so amazing she was a strong anchor in this whole book Seeley and at the end I liked the ending because things wrapped up nicely but Lou is just very juvenile she's very selfish she was very she didn't care about the girl's feelings yes she wanted to save the magic theme-park whatever but at the end of the day she wanted to break a couple up she wanted to have a couple demise she made her come she made her best friend do something uncomfortable that her best friends clearly uncomfortable with doing because of her own reasons what she didn't even ask Celie about her reasons about her feelings at all it's just little was the main reason why I didn't like this book so that's why I gave it a 2 out of 5 now the reviews are all over the place for this book I've seen some five-star reviews which is great I see this is the to service which I agree with but at the other day if you like it that's great I sadly did not because I just thought the main character was just downright selfish and that's just how I feel so moving on not what to dislike it at all I went into it wanting to love it a thousand percent but sadly I did good by perfect by Sarah Bernhard this one got released last year but I think I got rereleased out in the u.s. because this is a UK book if I'm not mistaken this year so goodbye perfect is one or more serious wine contemporaries but it is also very it's also a light read it's like a white flash a heavier read I don't know what you want to call it and this book we follow character named Eden and even has a best friend named Bonnie and basically even wakes up one day and bonnie has run away with their music teacher Eden had no he didn't had no idea about this she never knew a secret way was happening but basically Eden and Bonnie still talked and Eden knows her bonnie is and the police keep questioning her but I asked her to keep quiet about where her in the meze th are so Eden does because that is her best friend and she wants to uphold her wishes told book is about Eden struggles of whether or not she wants to tell the truth about where bonnie is and you know things like that also deals with a a very big age gap romance illegal romance at that it was a very big age gap and it was a teacher with a student which is never a good thing and it's very tricky so basically I gave this book a 4 out of 5 I really enjoyed it this is my first Arab in our book and I will definitely be reading more of her books I like that she takes on such a heavier theme with a book with the whole age gap romance with the illegal romance and the wrongness of it but puts it in a lighter tone I think that thought it just fit this book greatly I love reading about Eden Eden was a character that was adopted and she lost her adopted parents but she still really feel rooted in that family quite yet and you see her struggles with that you see her struggles with her boyfriend you see her struggles with running whether or not to tell the true location of where Bonnie is because she wants to help Bonnie but she also wants to make Bonnie happy and Bonnie seems happy with this music teacher but even knows it is wrong so this whole book is that basically that's what this book is about I can't go into more because I don't want to spoil it for you would I recommend it yes I think it's great it's one of the why contemporaries I don't hear anybody talk about I don't hear a lot of people talk about Sarah Bernard but I really enjoyed it she kind of reminds me writing style the same as Tamiya Ireland stone which I also really enjoy so I would recommend this in case you're looking for a light read but with your with a heavier tone to it because of you know the illegal relationship how wrong it is how its kind of almost kidnapping in a way it's just it's very interesting in that regard so I would recommend this and I did enjoy any last book I want to talk about a summer of salt by Katrina Leno this book I finally read this year for summer Athan and I am so happy I did it is a very short book so I will not be sharing too much about it because I don't want to spoil there's only 250 pages that's like a blip it is so magical it reminds me so much of practical magic yes Practical Magic is hokey I'm fully aware of that but something about it is just so memorize to me that I watch it every fall and I fall in love what they even though it's not the best this just gave me such practical magic right so we have this island and it's called by the sea this town by the sea Oh a character named Georgina who has a twin named Mary and basically their last name is fern when I don't know and their family possesses magical powers each each person in the family has one gift their mom can make potions like she can make hangover cures she can make something truth she can do anything she can with potions Mary can float so she can float like a balloon up in the air Georgina has not yet gotten her power quite yet and their 18th birthday is looming and that is like the cutoff of when they're gonna get your power if you're gonna get a power you're gonna get it by then so that's kind of looming they're also realizing this is their last summer at by the sea because the next summer they're gonna because in the fall they're going to move to the mainland I don't know what the mainland is is the United States I don't know but they're gonna move to the mainland to go to college so basically the fall this follows their last summer I by the sea and it's just a beautiful town each summer there is this bird that's actually a Fenmore person that has turned into a bird named Annabella and she's this rare exotic bird because she's really a person and she comes to by the sea every single summer and it brings all these like they call them bird heads out to the island and they come to study this magical bird so this whole book is about their last summer there and about Georgina and show Sam it's a girl and it's just adorable this also has such beautiful lyrical writing very descriptive I love how each different place and by the sea has a different tone to it they go to the graveyard it always feels like late fall there because as leaves and it feels cooler and it's just a magical book like if you are looking for a summer book but with a magical tone to it this is perfect for that so I gave this book a 5 out of 5 it's 250 pages but I enjoyed each and every page the last part of it does get a little bit serious because talks about a very serious issue little bit really gracefully I thought and overall this book is just so magical I love how it's 250 pages in that interesting one and dying because it's like I want to go to by the sea and I want to live there and I would have go see Annabella every year and it's just a lyrical book so if you are on the fence about Remus it's only 250 pages and it's got that perfect magic and summer vibes like everything about it it's just so magical and witchy and I really loved it so five out of five highly recommend so there you have my thoughts on these three books right here as always I say with all my Metro reviews each one of these books offer something different if you want a summer book about a theme park with not the best pink character hot girl is your book if you want a light connect word book but with a much more deeper and serious like tone goodbye perfect it's great for that if you want something summery but yet magical and has that witchy by summer saw is great for that as well so clearly my favorite summer us home but either way I would love to hear if you've read any books what you thought about them I would love to talk about them down in the comments thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in the next video byehello everyone today I am here to do another matter of you if you're with Matt reviews on my channel it's where I take three of my most recent reads I try to keep them all the same genre and review them all for you in one video so what I do is I talk about the book is about I tell you what I rated it what I liked and what I didn't like today is a matte review full of why contemporary all of them are pretty recent releases just kidding I think to whom came from last year so it's they're all black contemporary so there you go they're always in the same genre as always I believe time stands down below if you want to hear about one particular book over the others the books I will be talking about today is hot dog girl by Jennifer Dugan goodbye perfect by Sarah Bernhard somersault by Katrina Leto without further ado let's begin so the first book I want to talk about is the most recent release and that is hot dog girl by Jennifer Dugan I bought this book last month and I was very highly anticipating it it's one of my most anticipated reads of the year probably for the summer honestly and sadly I did not laugh it this book follows a character named Eloise Liu who works at a theme park called like the Magic Castle like theme park think of it as not quite Vegas Disney World probably around I don't know like I'm just a smaller theme park that was within just a really small theme park not even I would say a moderate-sized probably a small one and Magic Castle is kind of your like kind of beat up theme park every summer Liu works there and this is her second year as the dancing hot dog and she has a best friend that works at the carousel has a brand that she has a crush on that is a like pirate that does a diving show his girlfriend is a princess and there's also a prince a lot of people that work in this Magic Castle play um dress up and have jobs and some like that so basically Lou wants this to be the best summer ever before she goes into her senior year and she also learns that this summer Magic Castle playground it's officially closing for good and she's very sad about it because that's where a lot of her memories lie before her mother left and then also with that going on she kind of goes into it with a hesitation for the summer and she also has a crush like I said on a guy that is like a diving pirate if you will Nick only problem is Nick is seeing a girl and he's been seeing the same girlfriend for a while named Jessa I believe and Lou come the scheme to break them apart and so that what that is what this book is all about just a summer working at a theme park and I thought that it was gonna be just that one of my guilty pleasures with movies especially is theme park movies I love the way way back I love Metro and I don't know it is about theme park movies I just adore them so I thought reading a book about a theme park would just be amazing and I did enjoy that aspect of the book but that's the only thing I enjoyed I gave this book a 2 out of 5 now I don't give those out lately yeah I'd really give those out because I just don't like doing that but sadly I did not love this book I it's so sad because that may sound amazing the cover is amazing I mean the cover is everything I want to keep this book forever because of the cover but I did not love it so what I didn't love about it was the character loo now this is gonna be a little bit hard to review because I am 30 years old so I read a lot of way and I'm not within the Brack I'm not within the age johner that it's really geared towards so I'm fully aware of that now some why books I feel characters are very juvenile and things like that and I understand because that is their character that's who they are that's their age but some line books the characters are very mature and that's exactly how it is was any sixteen seventeen you're out there some are gonna be juvenile some are gonna be mature I fell in the more mature side when I was sixteen seventeen because of what happened to me in my life a lot of other sixteen seventy year olds they might be more mature because what's going on their life but some might be juvenile easier for me to read the why books with the mature Wyatt character and it's harder for me to read a book with a juvenile Wyatt character and that's not to say they're acting out of character they're acting wrong there's sixteen seventeen they're young they have a lot to go on but Lou was just a hard character to read for me not only was she juvenile I thought she was very selfish and I don't know if that's like a normal teenage thing I'm not a teenager I can't say that but one of the main reasons I didn't like this book is because Lou's whole agenda for the entire summer was to break a couple up she really had a crush on this guy named Nick Nick had been seeing this girl for years and years Nick was very much in love with this girl but Lou wanted him so she to find and schema way to break them up so she could be with Nick which is already a huge red flag I don't know why she would think that that's very selfish of her then it gets even more selfish she decides to make her breast friend Seeley and her act like they're a couple so they can entice Nick to like you know maybe if losing a relationship who want her back because she's unavailable and that you know she kind of forced her best friend to be in a relationship or a fake relationship with her and her best friend didn't want that and her best friend was so amazing she was a strong anchor in this whole book Seeley and at the end I liked the ending because things wrapped up nicely but Lou is just very juvenile she's very selfish she was very she didn't care about the girl's feelings yes she wanted to save the magic theme-park whatever but at the end of the day she wanted to break a couple up she wanted to have a couple demise she made her come she made her best friend do something uncomfortable that her best friends clearly uncomfortable with doing because of her own reasons what she didn't even ask Celie about her reasons about her feelings at all it's just little was the main reason why I didn't like this book so that's why I gave it a 2 out of 5 now the reviews are all over the place for this book I've seen some five-star reviews which is great I see this is the to service which I agree with but at the other day if you like it that's great I sadly did not because I just thought the main character was just downright selfish and that's just how I feel so moving on not what to dislike it at all I went into it wanting to love it a thousand percent but sadly I did good by perfect by Sarah Bernhard this one got released last year but I think I got rereleased out in the u.s. because this is a UK book if I'm not mistaken this year so goodbye perfect is one or more serious wine contemporaries but it is also very it's also a light read it's like a white flash a heavier read I don't know what you want to call it and this book we follow character named Eden and even has a best friend named Bonnie and basically even wakes up one day and bonnie has run away with their music teacher Eden had no he didn't had no idea about this she never knew a secret way was happening but basically Eden and Bonnie still talked and Eden knows her bonnie is and the police keep questioning her but I asked her to keep quiet about where her in the meze th are so Eden does because that is her best friend and she wants to uphold her wishes told book is about Eden struggles of whether or not she wants to tell the truth about where bonnie is and you know things like that also deals with a a very big age gap romance illegal romance at that it was a very big age gap and it was a teacher with a student which is never a good thing and it's very tricky so basically I gave this book a 4 out of 5 I really enjoyed it this is my first Arab in our book and I will definitely be reading more of her books I like that she takes on such a heavier theme with a book with the whole age gap romance with the illegal romance and the wrongness of it but puts it in a lighter tone I think that thought it just fit this book greatly I love reading about Eden Eden was a character that was adopted and she lost her adopted parents but she still really feel rooted in that family quite yet and you see her struggles with that you see her struggles with her boyfriend you see her struggles with running whether or not to tell the true location of where Bonnie is because she wants to help Bonnie but she also wants to make Bonnie happy and Bonnie seems happy with this music teacher but even knows it is wrong so this whole book is that basically that's what this book is about I can't go into more because I don't want to spoil it for you would I recommend it yes I think it's great it's one of the why contemporaries I don't hear anybody talk about I don't hear a lot of people talk about Sarah Bernard but I really enjoyed it she kind of reminds me writing style the same as Tamiya Ireland stone which I also really enjoy so I would recommend this in case you're looking for a light read but with your with a heavier tone to it because of you know the illegal relationship how wrong it is how its kind of almost kidnapping in a way it's just it's very interesting in that regard so I would recommend this and I did enjoy any last book I want to talk about a summer of salt by Katrina Leno this book I finally read this year for summer Athan and I am so happy I did it is a very short book so I will not be sharing too much about it because I don't want to spoil there's only 250 pages that's like a blip it is so magical it reminds me so much of practical magic yes Practical Magic is hokey I'm fully aware of that but something about it is just so memorize to me that I watch it every fall and I fall in love what they even though it's not the best this just gave me such practical magic right so we have this island and it's called by the sea this town by the sea Oh a character named Georgina who has a twin named Mary and basically their last name is fern when I don't know and their family possesses magical powers each each person in the family has one gift their mom can make potions like she can make hangover cures she can make something truth she can do anything she can with potions Mary can float so she can float like a balloon up in the air Georgina has not yet gotten her power quite yet and their 18th birthday is looming and that is like the cutoff of when they're gonna get your power if you're gonna get a power you're gonna get it by then so that's kind of looming they're also realizing this is their last summer at by the sea because the next summer they're gonna because in the fall they're going to move to the mainland I don't know what the mainland is is the United States I don't know but they're gonna move to the mainland to go to college so basically the fall this follows their last summer I by the sea and it's just a beautiful town each summer there is this bird that's actually a Fenmore person that has turned into a bird named Annabella and she's this rare exotic bird because she's really a person and she comes to by the sea every single summer and it brings all these like they call them bird heads out to the island and they come to study this magical bird so this whole book is about their last summer there and about Georgina and show Sam it's a girl and it's just adorable this also has such beautiful lyrical writing very descriptive I love how each different place and by the sea has a different tone to it they go to the graveyard it always feels like late fall there because as leaves and it feels cooler and it's just a magical book like if you are looking for a summer book but with a magical tone to it this is perfect for that so I gave this book a 5 out of 5 it's 250 pages but I enjoyed each and every page the last part of it does get a little bit serious because talks about a very serious issue little bit really gracefully I thought and overall this book is just so magical I love how it's 250 pages in that interesting one and dying because it's like I want to go to by the sea and I want to live there and I would have go see Annabella every year and it's just a lyrical book so if you are on the fence about Remus it's only 250 pages and it's got that perfect magic and summer vibes like everything about it it's just so magical and witchy and I really loved it so five out of five highly recommend so there you have my thoughts on these three books right here as always I say with all my Metro reviews each one of these books offer something different if you want a summer book about a theme park with not the best pink character hot girl is your book if you want a light connect word book but with a much more deeper and serious like tone goodbye perfect it's great for that if you want something summery but yet magical and has that witchy by summer saw is great for that as well so clearly my favorite summer us home but either way I would love to hear if you've read any books what you thought about them I would love to talk about them down in the comments thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in the next video bye\n"