Review: Thirty Sunsets by Christine Hurley Deriso

Thirty Sunsets by Christine Hurley Deriso

To Forrest Shephard, getting away to the family's beach house with her parents and her brother, Brian, is the best part of every summer. Until this year, when her mother invites Brian's obnoxious girlfriend, Olivia, to join them. Suddenly, Forrest's relaxing vacation becomes a mission to verify the reality of Olivia's rumored eating disorder. But the truth behind Olivia's finicky eating isn't at all what Forrest expected. And over the next thirty days, Forrest's world is turned upside down as her family's darkest secrets begin to come to light.

Publishes in US: July 8th 2014 by Flux
Genre: ya contemp
Source: library
Series? no

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   I wanted to read Thirty Sunsets because of the promise of a beach summery read (tired of the cold here) with some depth. 

   Forrest is the main character and she is pretty easy to like. She is nerdy and doesn't quite fit in with the popular crowd but she has some close friends, and of course a crush. She used to be close to her brother, but since he has been dating Olivia, who Forrest does not like, they have grown apart, and she feels it is all on Olivia. He had dreams of pre-med at Vanderbilt but now he is wanting to stick around and just go to the community college. 

    Forrest has dreams of him, where she is saving him, or she forgot about him while he is in trouble. It was kinda weird, because I haven't read much about that, and I don't really dream about my family much, but then again, I am an only child. 

    Olivia was pretty easy to dislike, but Forrest is too in her interactions with her, or when talking about her. Forrest gets pretty sarcastic to her and rude at times. I get that Brian, the bro is making bad decisions, and Olivia does act like she is worthy of his worship but it all just feels like an interesting set-up. 

  The family dynamics are interesting. Brian has thrown some of their "perfect" image type things out and they all don't speak about Olivia or their opinions about his decisions. So they are having to tip-toe around those issues, but seems to be even deeper than that one issue. 

    I got into it when Forrest had a night with a cute guy and then he acted like he v didn't know her the next day. I began to realize that more and more her issues with Olivia were more sell esteem than anything. And when the two girls finally started talking and i realized what was driving Olivia and her real motives and reasons I was able to pull for her too.

     Speaking of boy... It went to show that Forrest was inexperienced. Scott had all the cheesy pick up lines, focused on her looks, ignored her in front of his friends, and tried to take things too fast. things went even more wrong there, but it helped her mom to finally open up about things that had been secret, and it got deep pretty quickly. I didn't mind, but it was just a different turn but the synopsis def leads that way.

   The ending took an interesting way out, and I am not sure how I feel about the conclusion. just fininishing it. I do like the way the family matters were settled and that it gave a small cute epilogue, but the Scott line... Not sure. 

Bottom Line: Worthwhile summery read with depth.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Any experience with summer beach homes?