Review: 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.

Paperback, 240 pages

Expected publication: July 8th 2014 by Flux 

Genre: Young Adult

Kristine's Thoughts:

* I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Flux via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This is the story of Forrest, a 16 year old girl, who is not popular, has no experience with boys and who dislikes her older brother's girlfriend Olivia. When she finds out that Olivia will be spending the month with her family at their beach house she thinks her summer is doomed. She soon finds out that things aren't always as they seem. Secrets and events happen in those thirty days that leave Forrest questioning the things she thought she knew and re-evaluating the things she didn't.

There are a few very relevant and important topics discussed in this book that many teens unfortunately have to deal with. I won't discuss them because I don't want to give the story away but I thought the author touched on them in a way that young teens will relate to in a very easy way. Although they are serious topics, the book did not come across too heavy and depressing but got the point across all the same.

Thirty Sunsets is a very quick and easy book to read that I think will really appeal to the younger of the young adult fans. It is a cute story of family and relationships. When deciding what to rate this book I thought back to my young teenage years and asked myself if I would have liked it and the answer is yes.

About the Author

Christine Hurley Deriso, a resident of North Augusta, South Carolina and a 1983 graduate of the University of Georgia College of Journalism, has written professionally for more than twenty-five years. She began her career as a reporter for The Augusta Chronicle. Christine has written feature articles, humor columns and inspirational essays for magazines including Ladies’ Home Journal, Parents, Family Circle and Child. She has overseen editorial standards for Georgia Health Sciences University since 1988 and was The Augusta Chronicle’s restaurant critic from 1998 to 2005.

Website-http://www.christinehurleyderiso.com/