Review: A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

A Midsummer’s Nightmare
By: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Poppy
Published: June 5, 2012
Genre: New Adult
Rating:
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Whitley Johnson’s dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She’s just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée’s son? Whitley’s one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin’ great.
Worse, she totally doesn’t fit in with her dad’s perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn’t even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she’s ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn’t “do” friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn’t her stepbrother…at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Yup, Kody is one of my favorite authors. I don’t care what that chick writes, I’ll read it. She keeps the teen scene real. She doesn’t write her characters the way that society thinks they should be written, she writes them the way that teens are. She even gives her characters real life issues who do really stupid things. I LOVE Kody’s writing.

Okay now that my author gushing is out of the way, lets talk about Whitley. Whitley has some serious daddy complex issues. Her parents got divorced when she was young and she never sees her father, except during the summer months. Her mother never remarried and her brother moved away and got married so there was never a male figure in her life. She doesn’t realize that she has any issues though, to her, life is a bunch of drunken nights and hookups. Her mom doesn’t care about what she does and it isn’t until she finds herself meeting her father’s new family that she realizes what a difference a “family” can make.

I like that the author gave Nate some struggles of his own. After his father passed away, Nate took to drinking and drugs. He was out of control for a few years and it isn’t until he hooked up with a chick who totally brushes him off the next morning that he realizes that his partying isn’t so great anymore. Then the poor guy gets kicked in the balls when he meets his soon to be step-dad’s daughter, the one and only “bang & bounce”, Whitley. (okay I totally made up the whole bang & bounce, that’s not her nickname) So now he’s saddled for the summer with the chick who totally blew him off after they slept together and to make matters worse, her crazy party ways are having a negative impact on his 13 year old sister.

The cast of characters were awesome in this book. I thought the secondary characters were great, from the gay friend who wasn’t your typical stereotypical “gay guy” in a book (You know what I’m talking about) to the younger sister who is excited to have an older sister and looks up to Whitley and even the step-mom who is trying to be attentive and make Whitley feel comfortable in her new environment. Very rarely to I like ALL of the extra characters in a story but I did with this one.

It seems like sex is a huge theme with Kody. The DUFF was a girl who has sex with the guy who called her the “designated ugly fat friend”, Shut Out was a jock chick who gets her team members and friends to withhold sex from their boyfriends for the season, and then of course this one with Whitley who is so majorly messed up and out of control. However, with all the other stories, the characters see their ways, right the wrongs and they get a HEA. In this case, it took her scandalous behavior being broadcast via a Facebook group page in order for her to see how wild she’d become.

Yes there is a lot of drinking that takes place in this story but the author shows the consequences of such behavior. She didn’t sugar coat what happens due to Whitley’s partying. She always shows the fall out to everything that happens in her books. This is a great book and I cannot wait to see what she comes out with next.

I’m sure everyone is going to say that they like Harrison but the moment that Whitley sat down at The Nest (teen club) and starts flirting with with him, I liked him instantly and hoped that he was in the story. Thank you Kody for keeping him around because he was hilarious! For instance the scene at the club…

He shook his head and looked down the bar. “Joe!” he called. “Hey, Honey, can you get the pretty girl a coke?”
“Only if you stop calling me honey,” the bartender, a bearded man in his thirties, replied. “We’ve had this discussion before, Harrison.”
“Aw, Joe. It’s so cute that you think I listen.”
The bartender poured some Coke into a glass and slid it toward me. Harrison winked and handed the cash to Joe, who rolled his eyes before walking back to the other end of the bar, where more customers waited.
“He hates it when I flirt with him, Harrison whispered to me. “Which just makes it funnier.”

3 Thoughts on “Review: A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

  1. Soo jealous! I’ve wanted to read this book foreverrr(: Great review
    Jackie

  2. Bang & bounce. I love it. So perfect. Bahahaha.

  3. bang and bounce! HAHAHA that is HILARIOUS.. and I agree, Keplinger seems to have one theme in these books but I’m not complaining since her female protagonists are fantastic and not the annoying whiny ones (well mate the one from DUFF but I really liked her in the end).

    great review,
    – Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf

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