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"Just a Boy and a Girl and a Little Canoe" by Sarah Mlynowski [Review]

I got an e-ARC from Edelweiss Plus in exchange for a review. Thanks, Edelweiss Plus!

While her boyfriend, Eli, is backpacking around Europe, Sam has to go back to Camp Blue Springs, a camp she had a bad experience (given a terrible nickname) as a counselor. She expects it to be a disaster, but then she meets the camp’s sailing instructor, Gavin. She begins to fall for him, but wait…doesn’t she still have a boyfriend? And will this camp experience as a counselor be better than her camper experience?

This is the second book of the author’s that I’ve read (my first being ‘I See London, I See France’), so I wanted to see how her take on a camp romance would turn out. Although I have to admit, there were some parts I didn’t like (more on that later), overall, it was good.

Besides the author, what first drew me to the book is that it’s a camp romance story. I’ve read some that make it work, some that are typical, and some that are unique. When I learned there was a girl with my name in the book (although the character isn’t anything like me beyond that), I just had to read further because it’s a rare and unique experience to see my name in a book. By the end of the book, I found myself wanting to go to that camp and thinking of my past camp experiences (even had myself a camp nickname, though not a terrible one like Sam’s). The ending did surprise me though (no spoilers).

I didn’t particularly like the Eli scenes. I found his character too whiny, selfish, and self-absorbed. Between team Eli and team Gavin, I was always on team Gavin. I didn’t like the gossip counselors (not spoiling anything), but I suppose they were typical at camps (though I’ve never been a counselor at one).

This is a good camp story with romance in it. 4 out of 5 stars.

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