A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger
Published by Poppy on June 5th, 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 291
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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.

This book was amazing. Seriously. Kody Keplinger surprises me again and again, every time I pick up another one of her books.

A Midsummer’s Nightmare, like many of Keplinger’s books, is set in Hamilton. I have mixed feelings about authors using the same set over and over again, but I actually like it in this case, and I loved being able to see some of the characters from The Duff have a part in this book.

Whitley was an amazing MC. Yeah, she had her slew of issues: from drinking too much to not seeing things from other people’s point of view to overreacting. But at the same time, these character flaws were addressed in the book, and gave way to some top-notch character development. I seriously love the journey that Whitley goes through in this book. It is powerful and heartbreaking. I cried on multiple occasions.

Nathan, Whitley’s hook-up/father’s-fiancé’s-son, is adorable. I love him. He is sweet and caring and, well, perfect for Whitley. I really love all of the main characters in this book. Harrison is an awesome best friend, and Bailey is a sweet and naïve and adorable preteen/soon-to-be-half-sister.

Whitley’s parents have a lot of issues. I don’t want to talk to much about them, because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I think the way they are handled in this book are really powerful and moving. The fiancé, on the other hand, is kind of amazing and I love her (and I forgot her name… wowwww).

A Midsummer’s Nightmare is one of those magical books that are pushed forward by both the plot and the characters… and both are really good. I seriously can’t tell you how hard that is to find. Just everything about this book makes me want to read it again and again (oh if only I had the time!!).

I would 100% recommend this to YA contemp lovers, and people (like me) who tend to stay away from YA contemporary romance. This is one of the great ones guys. Also, if you have every read anything by Jenn Bennett, the writing styles are similar. So, if you love Bennett, you will love Keplinger.

I am going to give A Midsummer’s Nightmare five out of five hearts!

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