Summer Days and Summer Nights

Book 76 of my 2016 Reading Challenge
read from Sept. 22 - 29

Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Summary (via the book jacket)
Maybe it's the long, lazy, days, or maybe it's the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom.
Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young-adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons to soak up the sun and fall in love.

My Opinion
As with any collection of stories by different authors, I'm going to like some more than others.  I made a few notes as I went along but don't really have a lot of say.  This would be a great beach read but is easily forgettable when it's over (other than introducing me to some authors I'd like to read more from).  Lots of first love, I will recommend this to my tween daughter because I imagine her reading and sighing through the whole thing.

Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail by Leigh Bardugo
Decent. Predictable ending but all came together nicely.
Quote from the Story: "Eli kissed Gracie like she was a song and he was determined to hear every note." 

The End of Love by Nina LaCour
Nice to have an LGBT story without a big production about it.
Quote from the Story: "She doesn't say much, but she's still telling me things."

Last Stand at the Cinegore by Libba Bray
Very descriptive.  Hokey ending but I was really into it.  Will definitely read this author again.
Quote from the Story: "Personally, I can't imagine why anyone would want to build anything in Deadwood, Texas, which is true to its name. Leaving Deadwood is pretty much the best option out there. If you're somebody who has options."

Sick Pleasure by Francesca Lia Block
I liked it while I was reading it but not where it ended up.
Quote from the Story: "Maybe I wouldn't be a hero like J, a scientist like L, or an artist like M, but I wanted to do something with my life that would make people feel better, somehow. Words were the answer, but I didn't know it yet."

In Ninety Minutes, Turn North by Stephanie Perkins
It was cute and cheesy and young-love-spill-your-heart-out-angst awkward.
Quote from the Story: "Between the evergreens, the first fireflies of the night materialized. They blinked in the dusk of the setting sun, a reminder that light was a recurring state."

Souvenirs by Tim Federle
Great that it's another LGBT one that's a regular story that just happens to be 2 guys.  I love his phrasing and will definitely read this author again.
Quote from the Story: "But the thing about scars is that, as much as they knot you up, they can make you stronger, too. Collect enough scars and you get a whole extra layer of skin, for free."

Inertia by Veronica Roth
That was terrific and I had all the feels.  I didn't want it to end but it was also the perfect length for the story arc.
Quote from the Story: "She gave me a reassuring smile. I wondered if she practiced it in the mirror, her softest eyes and her gentlest grins, so she wouldn't make her patients' grief any worse. Such a careful operation it must have been."

Love is the Last Resort by Jon Skovron
Enjoyable read with a rom-com feel but soooo hokey!
Quote from the Story: "This girl had a sort of beauty that changed depending on the angle you viewed her. Looking at her one way, her features were as elegant and sharp as a blade. Looking at her another, her eyes blazed with an inner fire. As it happened, Arlo liked to play with both knives and matches."

Good Luck and Farewell by Brandy Colbert
Felt the most authentic. I'm not sure what that says about me because it was also the saddest and least "romance" of them all. I will definitely read this author again.
Quote from the Story: "Love. It's such a bullshit word. She loves me, but that's a different kind of love, and it's not enough to make her stay."

Brand New Attraction by Cassandra Clare
Interesting story but there was a lot of stuff thrown in for a short story and that led to a hurried, tidy resolution.
Quote from the Story: "He'd laughed and ruffled my hair, and I'd thought that we were the most important things to him, the carnival and me. But he'd taken off on us without a second thought, and we were both showing the effects."

A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong by Jennifer E. Smith
Although I knew Griffin's "revelation" very early on, this was a really nice story and I would read this author again.
Quote from the Story: "There was something magnetic about him. Whenever I saw him, I had the completely unfamiliar urge to take him by the shoulders, plunk him down in a chair, and make him open up to me."

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things by Lev Grossman
Meh. This was a fine enough story but not for me.
Quote from the Story: "But you know how there's a certain kind of person - and it's different for everyone - but suddenly when you see them your eye just snags on them, you get caught and you can't look away, and you're ten times more awake than you were a moment ago, and it's like you're a harp string and somebody just plucked you?"