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It won�t be long until summer is here�a time for summer adventures and summer loves. In author Sarah Tomp�s young adult debut, My Best Everything, a small-town teen looks back on the desperation that led her to both illegal activity and an unexpected but life-changing romance.
The story takes place during Louisa �Lulu� Mendez�s last summer in Dale, Virginia. Lulu is counting down the days until she leaves the too-tiny mountain town and starts college. But when her father announces that they no longer have the money for her tuition, Lulu is forced to think of a backup plan.
At a party one night, straight-laced Lulu decides that her only hope is to spend the summer making moonshine. She even finds a still�but she has no idea what to do with it. So she and her friends turn to Mason Malone, a recovering alcoholic with a seriously troubled past. And as Mason helps Lulu raise the money to get out of town, their relationship makes her question her decision to leave.
This Appalachian love story isn�t the typical teen romance. While there�s really nothing new about the story of a good girl falling in love with a bad boy with a heart of gold, the mountain setting and the characters� illegal bond make it refreshingly different.
Dale is a small, sleepy town where everyone knows everyone else�s business�or at least the gossiped version of everyone else�s business. It�s also a town where not much happens�where kids Lulu�s age are either planning to settle down (like her best friend, Roni) or planning to get away�yet it�s populated by its own kinds of fascinating characters.
The moonshining business, meanwhile, isn�t the plan of a trouble-making teen. It�s a carefully-calculated money-making scheme, devised by a smart but desperate young woman who never misses Mass�and who never even tried a sip of alcohol until after high school graduation. It�s a risky proposition that gives the story just a hint of danger�though it isn�t as suspenseful as readers might expect.
From the very beginning, though, there�s something bittersweet about Lulu�s story. She�s determined to get as far away from home as possible�to walk away and never look back. And that gives her story of summer love a melancholy tone�because her relationship with Mason seems doomed from the start. And the fact that it�s told from a second person point of view�like a letter written she�s writing as she looks back on their summer together�gives it an even more distant feel.
After a while, then, that melancholy tone makes the story drag. And, in the end, it�s an interesting story that goes on too long, taunting readers with hints and mysteries that seem a little too drawn out.
My Best Everything is an honest love story�a bittersweet novel about first loves and the impulsiveness of youth. The characters and their circumstances are sure to draw readers in, but instead of a gripping story of romance and illegal activity, it�s about as sleepy as a summer afternoon.
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