Monday Mini (5) - The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

It's Monday morning, the alarm clock just went off and everything is rush rush rush to get ready for the work week. Unfortunately there's limited time for book talk, and even less for blogging, but we still MUST share some book thoughts before we dive into the day. A Monday Mini is a quick little review typed with one hand, while coffee is made, makeup is applied and car keys are found with the other. Have a great Monday morning!

The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells
Published:Published June 1st 2010 by Sourcebooks Fire

From Goodreads:
Sometimes I still wake up shivering in the early hours of the morning, drowning in dreams of being out there in the ocean that summer, of looking up at the moon and feeling as invisible and free as a fish. But I'm jumping ahead, and to tell the story right I have to go back to the very beginning. To a place called Indigo Beach. To a boy with pale skin that glowed against the dark waves. To the start of something neither of us could have predicted, and which would mark us forever, making everything that came after and before seem like it belonged to another life.

My name is Mia Gordon: I was sixteen years old, and I remember everything.

This little gem was an unexpected surprise. At first, the story itself threatened to be rather unremarkable. Girl goes to stay with her cousins for the summer in the Hamptons. Cousins are rich elitist snobs, girl is average run-of-the-mill teenager who is overly self-conscious and eager to fit in. So I went into it not really expecting a whole lot. What I didn't expect is to get hit with a tidal wave of self-discovery and emotion. I did a disservice to you, little book, by prejudging you and I am sorry.

At first, I didn't like the main character, Mia. She always professed to being a person of more substance than she was and yet I never really saw any examples. All talk and no action so to speak. Mia spends a few weeks at the end of a rapidly fading (and disappointing) summer vacation, with the boy next door. Simon is the opposite of everything her cousins feel is "in." He is carefree, unique, artistic and refreshing. No love at first sight, no crush on the wrong guy complex going on, just a nice simple friendship with the hint of the possibility of more. Through her relationship with Simon, Mia learns to let go of her need for acceptance from those who really aren't worth the trouble to begin with.

A nice little summer read, complete with the beach and all.

(I want more contemporary beach YA. Suggestions??)