The Summer of Impossibilities is unfortunately not for me. I had tried this book and set it down in hopes of one day coming back to it, but now it is time to mark as DNF.

This was such a sweet read and definitely the first of many I will be reading by this author. I found all the characters relatable in their own way. The romance aspect was written so well.

There's something about a multiple POV summer book of friendship that just will always make me so happy.

The book was enjoyable and a fun early summer read! I was left wanting more from the moms and wished their characters had been more fleshed out. Ultimately I felt this book was trying to accomplish too much in very little space.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This seemed like a good ya read but several chapters in it no longer seemed like a good fit for our teens.

DNF - did not finish. I decided not to keep reading this young adult title. It was not for me. Thank you, publisher, and NetGalley for the early title!

Four girls. One summer. And a pact to do the impossible.

Skyler, Ellie, Scarlett, and Amelia Grace are forced to spend the summer together so their moms can have a reunion, and all of them are hiding something. Thrown into friendship, they will learn a lot about each other, themselves, and the power of the impossible.

This is the perfect summer read for the YA fan, whether you’re sixteen or forty-five. I loved the characters, and the alternating POVs gave insight through first person while telling a more complete picture of their story by switching so often. All four girls are different, and they are dealing with different issues, but there’s something about girlhood and learning to rely on your friends that’s universal. Whether you’re building your first friendship or have a built in one with a twin who couldn’t be more different than you, we all go through some of the same things, and we all learn from each other’s different experiences.

Amelia Grace just accidentally came out, quite publicly at church. Ellie has never had real friends before. Scarlet and Sky are twins, but they couldn’t be more different, and they just found out their dad cheated on their mom. It’s all so dramatic and mundane at the same time, but summer always feel like magic when you’re a teenager. I loved following these girls’ stories, watching them form bonds and fall in (and out of) love. It gave me major Now and Then vibes, which was my favorite movie growing up. I’m almost a year late getting around to this one, but the timing couldn’t be more perfect. It’s the perfect summer read, and it feels like summer here already, so losewin.

After several chapters I knew it would not appeal to my students and do not plan to purchase it. Thank you for the opportunity to read it for preview purposes.

I won't be recommending this to a lot of my students. The multiple points of view are too much for them to manage at their lower reading levels. It's a fun book, just not what I'm looking for.

I've enjoyed other books by this author but this one wasn't for me, I'd still recommend her earlier work though!

Wow, this was so good. It's sort of like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets Things I Can't Forget. It's all about sisterhood, friendship, toxic relationships, and more in this way that feels so real but also very uplifting.

There are four first person POVs in The Summer of Impossibilities, which is a lot, but they're done really well. I rarely had any issue with keeping them separate, because they all have unique voices. Skyler, Scarlett, Amelia Grace, and Ellie's POVs all dragged me into the story, and I read this one straight through, because I had to know where life was going to take them. Because it's an Allen book, there's a lot of nuance, and there's no perfect rom-com sort of ending, but the book as a whole made me feel so happy.

The plot of the book centers on a summer trip to Skyler and Scarlett's family lake house, after their mother discovers their father has been cheating on her. The mom puts a call out to her sorority sisters /best friends for help, and they all show up with their daughters to stay for the summer. Though the mom plot line is very much background, it's really lovely how the whole thing is about the life-long bonds between women and how incredibly important those friendships are.

The girls (Skyler, Scarlett, Amelia Grace, and Ellie) start up their mothers' club from when they were teens, which largely consists of making an "impossible" goal for summer, and these goals are their catalysts for change, though often in ways they do not expect. IMO this made a really great set up, with nice tropiness coming from the plot to add cuteness to a book with a lot of heavy topics. There's really great balance to this novel.

Skyler's struggling with juvenile arthritis, which by this point is basically preventing her from being able to play, her hands constantly feeling like she has shards of glass for bones. Her story involves invisible disabilities and her feeling that she cannot cause problems in the family. Skyler's such a freaking sweetie, but she's too afraid to make waves, and it's making things worse for her. She has a cute little romance, but it doesn't get much screen time. This book's way more about friendships than it is about romance.

Scarlett thinks her big problem is having been dragged off for the summer just when things were getting good at home. Thanks to her awesome boyfriend, she's accepted now and she's not cutting anymore. Sure, she's nervous about the possibility of having sex with him, but she's sure she'll be ready soon. Allen really delves into what makes a healthy relationship here, and it's on point and something teen girls would definitely benefit from considering.

Amelia Grace just came out to her whole town basically, caught in her first kiss ever with another girl. Immediately, she's ostracized, and her mother drags her away from the summer hoping things will blow over. Amelia's story is a crisis of faith. Very religious all of her life, she doesn't want to have to give up either her sexuality or her faith, but she doesn't believe she can have both. One thing I admire so much about this book is how thoughtfully religion is discussed (with Skyler's love of many religions, Amelia Grace's deep faith, Scarlett's agnosticism, and Ellie being Muslim). There's no judgment of faith or a lack of it, only of not being a good person inside of whatever you believe. And there's also a cute f/f romance, though again it's a small part of the book.

Ellie took me the longest time to warm up to, mostly because there's so much in Ellie that I related to. Ellie's absolutely desperate for friendship in a way that makes her awkward and push too hard, and oh man do I feel that deep in my bones. There's a special kind of psychological pain that comes from being entirely friendless, from never being wanted around, from always being excluded from groups, and it can really do a number on you. This is the summer of Ellie finally making friends and finally realizing that maybe she was going after the wrong people. Girl, I feel you. There's also some great stuff about the dangers of fitness inspiration stuff on the internet and a little bit on eating disorders.

The Summer of Impossibilities is a such a beautifully accepting book. The girls have a wide range of views on things (religion, sororities, drinking), and it really upholds the important of doing what's right for you and not judging others for being better off with something else. It's so motivational and heartwarming. Recommended for anyone looking for a book full of sisterhood and friendship. This may be my favorite Allen book so far!

DNFed at 30%.
Unfortunately, this book simply didn't engage me and I didn't have any motivation to finish it. The style of writing just wasn't for me and the plot did not hold my interest.

This was a very sweet summer read. It has some heavy topics (divorce, religion) while still being a light summer book. I enjoyed the four different POV’s. The writing is appropriate for a younger YA audience and I would recommend to teens.

The Summer of Impossibilities by Rachael Allen reminded me a lot of the sisterhood of the travelling pants which I loved reading growing up so the nostalgia factor was on max for this one. 5 star read highly recommended.

A cute, quick summer read. I enjoyed the feeling of friendshp portrayed in this story, and the range of female characters was a nice change. Some nice LGBT representaton too. Some of the plot points were a little predictable, but it was a heartwarming story nonetheless.

Perfect for a summer holiday, for ages 14+.

Every now and then authors get it into their heads to try and recreate the success of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. And then we get books like this one, of a group of vastly different girls thrown together by some circumstance. Each girl has some serious struggle she's dealing with in secret, a struggle that is threatening to overwhelm her. And its only through sharing and sisterhood that they can find their way out. So this all seems obvious and predictable. Even all the twists and turns, the way secrets come out and threatened to tear them apart. This is exactly what we expect from main stream fictions. There were some subtleties that I did like. I liked Scarlet's relationship as compare to her mothers and the abusive one. We see then how people get into unhealthy relationships, the things that drive one to stay in it. The comparison, though, lacked in finesse. Overall, I liked the plot and the characters more than I anticipated but this isn't one I'd turn to first.

This was a fun read all about sisterhood and camaraderie as four friends weather love and conflicts together in one turbulent summer. I enjoyed the diversity present, especially the neuro- and physical- diversity (we still don't see much of either in middle grade and YA books). A more relevant Traveling Pants type book.

5/5 stars

This book was just the joy I needed at exactly a terrible time. It has that essence of YA contemporary that I love so much, that bright joy and fun and dealing with hard topics but ultimately leaving you with hope.

It's a four-POV book, and at first it took a bit to figure out the particularities of each MC, especially with two of them being twins whose names start with the same letter — reading fast I had a hard time distinguishing between them. By maybe 15% of the way through, though, each POV was crystallized and that made it so pleasant to read and follow these journeys.

There was a lot of exploration of hard things in this book (bullying, pain, marital stress, etc), juxtaposed with fun moments like parties on the lake, so many descriptions of food and fun, and great friendship vibes.

Overall, would definitely recommend as I think it's a great book that touches on some hard things while remaining overall upbeat and positive, and is skillfully crafted what with those four distinct POVs.

I've loved the other books by Rachael Allen in the past - I think she's a super underrated YA writer with a lot of quiet books that more people should read! I've always thought that she did a nice job of writing real teenagers.

This book, unfortunately, missed that element for me. This is definitely a story where an old person like myself needs to turn on their teen brain and see where they're coming from, so don't read this if you're finding yourself unable to do that. I still felt that a lot of their inner thoughts and feelings were a bit unrealistic for characters their age. 

I struggled to keep all of the characters straight, which is frustrating, because they're all honestly quite different from each other. I could tell you details about each of them and their defining characteristics, but their inner thoughts and POVs didn't distinguish enough from each other. I constantly forgot who I was reading about. Skyler and Scarlett are twins - Skyler is dealing with juvenile arthritis and struggles to tell her mom that the pain meds aren't working, while Scarlett is having issues with her "perfect" boyfriend and has had issues with self-harming in the past. Ellie is a biracial Muslim girl who loves tennis, has had issues with eating (borderline eating disorder), and has struggled with bullies and making friends. Amelia Grace loves going to church but is trying to reconcile her sexuality with her love of God, all while harboring a longtime crush on Scarlett. All of the girls are at the lake house for the summer because their moms were sorority sisters and needed to come together to help one of them. 

So, as you can tell, there was kind of a lot going on... while at the same time, the plot never really kicked into gear for me. They would try to go to a party, talk about some stuff, hang out with their moms... and that's about it. So much of the book was just their internal thoughts about each other and overall feelings, without moving toward anything interesting.

I really enjoyed the Carolina lake setting and would have been curious to read more summery vibes in this one, as we're heading into May and I love reading summertime books now. Allen did a good job of touching on all kinds of marginalizations and problems teens could have, but it was a lot to read without really making progress toward a cohesive story. I really needed this book because it was easy to crank through, but I didn't love it as much as I hoped!

Don't you love summer books? The Summer of Impossibilities by Rachael Allen is a lovely book about summer, friendship, and learning to accept yourself for who you are.

It revolves around four main characters:

Skyler - she suffers from juvenile arthritis, and although she loves playing softball, it's incredibly painful to play. She doesn't want to disappoint her family by telling them her hands hurt.

Scarlett - Sky's twin sister, she's not sure about her boyfriend.

Amelia Grace - She's interested in girls and also likes church, but when her church finds out that she likes girls, doesn't want her to be a youth pastor anymore.

Ellie - She's been homeschooled for most of her life and has trouble making friends.

When Skyler and Scarlett's parents are having marriage troubles, the girl's parents take them to a lakeside cabin for the summer and the girls all share a cabin together. They follow in their mothers' footsteps by creating the Southern Belles Drinking Club - which doesn't necessarily involve drinking because Ellie is Moslem and doesn't drink. Together, they make a pact to do something impossible over the summer.

The growth and the friendship of these girls is sweet, and this makes a wonderful summer book. I only wish I had friendships like these. In the background of these girl's friendships, their parents are also dealing with things, and their difficulties bleed into the girl's lives--as they can in real life. I loved how the girls dealt with their family amidst their growing independence.

Although I enjoyed the book, my biggest problem was that sometimes I had difficulty distinguishing the voices of the various characters, especially at the beginning. I generally was able to tell the different characters apart mostly by what they were dealing with or by flipping back to see what name was at the chapter header, not by their different ways of speaking. But this is a minor issue.

I definitely think this is a fun book for teens to read this summer.