Skip to main content

The Other Side Review

The Other SideTitle: The Other Side
Author: Sarah Hocut
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Trigger Warning:

Rating: 3 stars

Release Date: March 25, 2019

Synopsis


“I think we should break up.”

Those six little words mean the summer after high school is not starting off the way Sadie Wills had planned. When her boyfriend of three years dumps her the day after graduation, she’s suddenly unsure of what the future will hold.

Serving up ice cream at Gigi’s Dairy Bar in downtown Abbyville proves to be a nice distraction. That is, until she finds out the old house across the street, which used to be the town’s flower shop, is being torn down to put up an ice cream franchise. Convinced the new store will put Gigi’s out of business, Sadie comes up with a plan. Her newfound summer resolution? Save that house and save Gigi’s.

Complications arise when she meets Eric and serious sparks start flying. The problem? Eric’s dad owns the company responsible for demolishing the old flower shop, and Eric is working for him over the summer. Even though she tells herself not to fall for him – he’s going to help run Gigi’s out of business after all, and besides, it’s too soon after her break-up to even think about giving her heart to someone else – Eric has other plans.

Torn by the arguments between her head and her heart, Sadie becomes very good at running over the summer. Running from her past. Running from her feelings. Running from love.

As the summer wears on, Eric slowly slips more and more into her life, and Sadie eventually realizes that she can’t run forever. But can she risk giving her heart to someone else?


Review


This book follows Sadie's summer after high school graduation, focusing on the past while moving forwards towards her future. I love the premises of this and the portrayal of a small town. Like, it felt realistic and everyone was invested in everyone else and knew it. There is so much personality within the town itself and I liked the descriptions of all the little shops and activities that were able to make this town be unique and at the same time just like every other small town.

I love this genre but this book was just too much, even for me. There just didn't feel like there was a whole lot there beyond this. At one point, I just turned off my device because I was so irritated with how just not it was. No realizations, not a whole lot of growth, and not even the lead couple was that cute or anything. I was not invested in the characters. Sadie annoyed me and was just full of contradictions. You don't get a full academic scholarship to a school and then talk about your first grade sister like her IQ is 50 points above everyone else in the family. Now, Sophia was adorable but still. The interactions felt really plain and dull and I just wanted more there. I wanted more lively and interesting main characters that I would find myself caring about instead of just not really caring.

I realize that sounds a little harsh, but the book is still a fun and easy read within the YA romance genre. I just definitely would not recommend expecting to get a whole lot out of this book like I typically expect from other books within the genre.


What is your favorite YA romance? Be sure to let me know in the comments. I love book recommendations.

Thanks for reading!
Alyssa

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August Six Degrees

I recently discovered the Six Degrees of Separation meme for book blogs, and it looks like a lot of fun, so I decided to start this month, and see how it goes! This month's prompt is a wild card. Since I didn't do this last month, I'm starting with the book that I'm currently in the middle of- The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. First Link: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan These books are both by the same author, but also they are both the books that got me into that specific type of mythology in the first place, both Greek and Egyptian. I've learned so much after becoming interested based on these books in the first place. Second Link: Pandora Gets Jealous by Carolyn Hennesy Both of these books are takes on Greek mythology. Percy Jackson is modern day, but Pandora is set back then. Still, the main characters are both awesome and their interactions with the Greek gods and other Greek mythical beings are just amazing. Third Link: The Frog Princess ...
12 comments
Read more

Unique Settings

Last week, I ran out of time to do my Top Ten Tuesday post, but I still loved the prompt of settings that I'd like to see more of. Since this week was a freebie, I decided to go ahead and do this prompt. Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. The books I have read from these books have been absolutely amazing in the majority of circumstances, but there needs to be so much more, especially in traditional publishing for a wide range of audiences, though some of these are best suited to YA or NA. So, let's get started! 4H- I spent twelve years as a member of local 4H, and I have only read one book that ever had showing livestock at a county fair as a plotline. It was amazing, but I haven't seen this aspect of my life in any other book. I have a few ideas based on my experiences...
16 comments
Read more

Anticipated Releases

Welcome back to another week of Top Ten Tuesday! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl with prompts every week! This one was surprisingly hard for me, maybe because I'm not really in the middle of any great series right now and all of the authors I read a lot aren't releasing this fall. I did include multiple books that I already got from Netgalley but they have not yet come out and I am behind but I still want to read them because I'm excited about their potential and hope that they are as amazing as I wish. So let's get started! Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst- Mare and Denna are an amazing sapp hic couple. I loved Of Ice and Shadows, and I absolutely cannot wait to read the sequel, but I have to. I am really excited for this book. Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan- I got my sister the first book for Christmas and still haven't read it, but this is another amazing sapphic series that I need to read. My sister loved...
26 comments
Read more