Cruel Summer

Cute quick read

Teen girls will love CRUEL SUMMER by Alyson Noel. The story is told using letters home, the journal her mother gave her, "Colby's Journal For Desperate Times...," and her new blog. The range of emotions, devastating lows to breathtaking highs, and the intense feeling that everything affects her is so authentic. The reader will relate to her habit of over-thinking every comment, gesture, or word of an email, and the insecurity she feels around Yannis. I loved this book and totally devoured it. For this reason, I give it five stars!

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Just a tip.

Miranda kenneally. Catching jordan. The best book i ever read. Obvi the books name is catching jorfan. I guarentee u will love it.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

BORING!!

Ok.. after I FORCED myself to finish one other book of Alyson Noels' (blog&kiss) I decided to see if this book would be any different?! Well, not really. I couldn't even get past page 24. I had to put it down. The one and pretty much only reason I didn't finish the book was that AGAIN a lot of repeating and useless information. Every SINGLE page and something that said... "I hate my parents for doing this to me!" "why did my parents do this to me?" or "This is going to be the worst summer ever!" OK Alyson Noel.. we get the picture... its going to be a "Cruel Summer." I would not recommend anyone to buy this book. If you REALLY want to read it... get it from the library so your not wasting your money on it.
But just like on my other reviews of Alyson Noel.. her Evermore series is really good.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

good for a quick read

I read this book in about a day and half. Sometimes it didn't really hold my attention, but it did have some twists and turns that made it interesting. I like how the whole book was in emails, letters, and journal entries, but sometimes the main charachter was annoying. This is definitely a book for a teenage girl who is looking for a quick read that doesn't require much thinking.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good, but slow

I thought that this book was good, but a bit hard to get into at first. It's written all in diary entries, e- mails, and letters. Again, I would recommend it to my friends because it has a good message, but otherwise it was so-so.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Dissapointed in Cruel Summer. On the Nook it is only 125 pages a

Dissapointed in Cruel Summer. On the Nook it is only 125 pages and it is $9.99. I had a lot of trouble connecting with Colby, the main character, yet both of us are the same age and have been through many of the same things. The first fifty pages or so are dedicated to her compaining about her life rather than an actual plot or depth to the story. However, it is a cute and short read and is written in blog entries and letters!

OMG!!!!! BEST. BOOK. EVER!!!!!!!

It captured my interesst from the very first word i read. It was just such a wonderful book. Yannis an Colby where my favorite characters, Yannis especially. I just wish i could have a boyfriend like him! Reading this book made me want to go to Tinos and experience it all for myself!

loved it

I thought this was an awesome book. I read it fast. It was cute, teen girls will defiantly love this.

:)

This book deserves two thumbs up! From start to finish i was drawn in and continuosly intrigued with the constant change of events! The setting was picture perfect and characters well developed! Lastly, the format was my favorite part. Constant letters, emails and journal entries! Fun, exciting read! Definitely worth the money!!!

Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel

When I first started reading Cruel Summer, I almost put it down. It wasn't horrible, but it was definitely not for me. Colby seemed annoying and spoiled, but around the middle of the novel, she got likable enough that I could continue reading. Thats not very good. I grabbed this book because it takes place in Greece, which is one of my favorite places in the world, but was disappointed when all Colby did was complain about it.
I decided to give Alyson Noel another chance after reading Saving Zoe, so because I was short on money, I got this book from the library. I'm glad I did. Cruel Summer was written only through blog entries, letters, diary entries, and texts, which was confusing because it didn't show anyone's messages but Colby's and left the minor characters undeveloped. I also felt that everything that happened was predictable. The plot was very unoriginal, and even the "twists" in the story were not unexpected or surprising. Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone :/

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

awsome book

i love this book i love the way she wrote it from webite to journal to diologe it was a amazing book! out of all the romance books this has to be the first loved it. the begginging was allright but wen u get to the middle its soo good u cnt stop havee to read!!!

Great teen book..classic story line with great special teen twists..finding yourself

Teen finding herself on the greek island of Tinos. Great book.

It was good.

This book was good but wasn't incredible. The main character- to me- was annoying at some points, which made the book kind of eh. I give it a 7 out of 10.

CRUEL SUMMER

I read this book about a year ago. It was okay. It wasn't really something I'd dive into again just for the heck of it. It was interesting and it kept me reading mostly. But I wouldn't recommend it to many people.

pretty good

This book was pretty good the beginning was kind of boring. There were a lot of details. It was a good read though. To me it was comical how she would change her point of view depending on who she was writing a letter to, just like i would.

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

Colby Cavendish has finally made it into the in crowd! She worked hard to gain Amanda's favor and now she's her new best friend. She's practically guaranteed the best Senior year ever! As an added bonus, Levi Bonham, the hottest guy in school, has suddenly become very interested in Colby! So interested that she's actually sitting right next to him on the couch at Amanda's house.

Okay, so Colby's just a little nervous that it's their first date...well, not even really a date. She's alone downstairs kissing Levi like she's always dreamed, like they'd been dating for forever, while Amanda is upstairs in her room with her guy. And Colby can't stop thinking about her curfew, which, by the way, passed, like, two hours ago. But at least she's stopped feeling guilty about dumping her former best friend, Natalie. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to progress up the social ladder. It's just part of life. Right?

Colby's parents are in the middle of a messy, angry divorce. Turns out they were so engrossed in their fight of the night, that they didn't even know Colby missed her curfew. It seems they barely remember they have a daughter, whose life they are royally screwing up. Then Colby finds out they have plans for her summer that don't include hitting the malls and becoming fully entrenched in her new social order.

They are sending her to Greece. No, not Athens. A tiny little island called Tinos. No amount of ranting, reasoning, pleading, or even crying will change their mind. Colby boards the plane bound for three months with Crazy Aunt Tally and no TV, no computer, no Wi-Fi. Nothing. How is she supposed to maintain her new social status? What if Colby gets replaced by a new Amanda Wanna-Be?

But soon things are looking up. First, there's Yannis, this really cute Greek guy who's living on Tinos! And second? She found an Internet café! Score! She is alive again! Maybe she can ignore the parent wars. But why was Yannis with Marie? And should she tell him that she's going to island hop to Mykonos to meet Levi, who's on a cruise to Greece? And her parents are going to sell the house as part of the divorce settlement? She might be spending her Senior year in Arizona?

Teen girls will totally love CRUEL SUMMER by Alyson Noël. The story is told using letters home, the journal her mother gave her, "Colby's Journal For Desperate Times...," and her new blog. The range of emotions, devastating lows to breathtaking highs, and the intense feeling that everything affects her is so authentic. The reader will relate to her habit of over-thinking every comment, gesture, or word of an email, and the insecurity she feels around Yannis. I loved this book and totally devoured it. For this reason, I give it five stars!

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great book!!!

To tell you the truth I gave up on this book and now just suddenly went back to it yesterday and finished it last night. I am very glad I did so! I'm kinda a hopeless romantic so this book was great for me! It does come on a bit strong, which is why I put it down at first, but it is worth it. Now I want a guy exactly like Yannis!!!!! In a lot of ways the relationships in this book are much like the ones in the Twilight series. So for those of you who like that series give this book a try.

a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat

The book was great. I loved the story line it makes you really want to keep reading more and more. The characters in it were fantastic. If you like vacations that you will remember forever read this book. It is almost like you were a character in the story once you get into it.

Amazing

Colbie Cavendish is looking forward to a fun summer spenet partying with her new (and über-popular) circle of friends. Unfortunately, her fighting parents decide to send her to a tiny Greek island no one¿s ever heard of to stay with her crazy aunt Tally. This is practically unforgivable to Colbie since she¿ll only have minimal contact with her new friends (email) and is worried they¿ll forget her. But when Colbie finally takes a break from being depressed about her vacation when she spends mostly in an Internet café, she realizes that maybe she should be out living instead of mourning all the changes to her old life. And that¿s when she meets Yannis, a gorgeous Greek guy who¿s just as interested in her as she is in him. It seems Colbie¿s vacation isn¿t as miserable as she thought it would be it changes her perspective on her entire life. I really enjoyed Alyson Noël¿s writing in her other novels that I¿ve read, Faking 19 and Saving Zoë, and Cruel Summer was no different. While the plot isn¿t fast-paced and exciting, it¿s the well-developed characters that really caught my attention, though in this case, Colbie was the only well-developed character as the story was told from her point-of-view. Alyson Noël has a subtle way of making her stories much deeper and more meaningful than they may appear on the surface, and this makes them seem real. For example, Colbie is initially portrayed as a whiny and insecure girl, but as her vacation progresses, she starts to appreciate or at least accept what she has in life. I also liked how romance was incorporated into Colbie¿s story, because she really deserved Yannis in the midst of all her other problems. In all, Cruel Summer was a very enjoyable story and, despite the cover, much better than just a beach read. In a strange way, although none of her novels rank very high among my favorites, Alyson Noël is one of my favorite authors. It¿s not just because she¿s an Orange County resident like me and often writes about that setting Alyson Noël just has a really great writing style. I definitely recommend Cruel Summer as well as her other novels that I¿ve read, Faking 19 and Saving Zoë. I also look forward to reading Art Geeks and Prom Queens and Kiss & Blog sometime in the future.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very Good Book

This is the first book I have ever read from Alyson Noel. It was a great book, with a great plot, and Alyson really did an outstanding job illustrating a teen trying to find who she is. This book kept me entertained, and kept me guessing. My only dissapointment, is that I was not expecting it to be written like a diary, blog, and letter, but after you read into the book a little bit, you look past that. It was a great book, though!