Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Summer of Impossibilities by Rachael Allen.

Sisters Scarlett and Skyler are shocked to come home one day to find their mother throwing out all of their father's possessions. He has been cheating on her, and she is taking her two girls to see her best and longest girlfriends in their summer home. Scarlett and Skyler are now going to be spending all summer with their "Aunties" and their aunties own teen daughters. Some of them know each other, some of them don't, but all of them are holding in secrets and looking for new friendships and romance.

Ok, this book covered a lot of totally legit teen issues. Sexual orientation, romance, health, pain, sex, divorce, emotional abuse, friendship and a need to belong. I appreciated all of that, this is a book that I think I would have really enjoyed as a teen.

Having said that, I think it could have been better. A lot of the plight's of the teens felt a bit unbelievable and contrived. The secret club that they formed was silly, and even the in-fighting between the girls was OTT. However, there was nothing overtly wrong with the story, in my opinion, but I think it could have gone deeper.

An ideal YA book for a group of friends to read together. Four seemingly different girls grouped by their mothers must spend a summer in the same cabin. The chapters hop from girl to girl so there are no true secrets from the reader only from the characters. A coming of age story that will hit home with more then one kind of young woman due to the insight of multiple personalities and situations. Children ages 14 and up.

I love summer. I love summer novels and this was one filled with friendships, falling in love and discovering yourself. This was amazing. the perfect summer novel.

I truly enjoyed the way Allen explored the relationships between the four girls, and used them to pull out various aspects of each character. There were frustrating elements of each character, where you at times just wanted them to do the very obvious thing they needed to do - but that's OK! Sometimes life is like that, and the thing that you need to do is the hardest. I thought it was a cute premise and setting, and enjoyed spending time in the world Allen created.

"I didn’t realise friendship could be a thing that makes you feel like you’ve been cracked wide open, but in the best possible way."

Perfect for fans of: The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and readers who love Kasie West and Morgan Matson

Review:

The overall execution of the story was really well done. When it comes to multiple POV’s, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between the different voices but all of the four girls had distinct tones to their chapters and their own individual goals that they were trying to make a reality.

The Summer of Impossibilities highlights friendship in all its glory. From the quiet anxieties everyone faces when trying to make new friends (am I likeable? Should I be funnier? Why don’t they want to hang out with me? is it them – or me?) to the best part of having a friend group (spending time together making the ordinary feel extraordinary), Allen encompasses a lot of different dynamics and preconceived notions about what a friend should be like in this novel.

Though the tone of the book is light, the topics addressed are on the darker side of things. Amelia Grace deals with the fallout with her church after she has been outed as gay during a sermon, Ellie struggles with building friendships because she doesn’t know how to be herself around other people and feels the pressure to be the best she can be on the tennis court, Scarlett used to cut herself and is still recovering and Skyler is frightened to tell her parents that her juvenile arthritis has deteriorated. It’s a lot to tackle in one novel and while there were some parts of the individual’s stories that could have used more page time for the reader to empathise, it was also extremely refreshing to have their issues be part of their personality instead of taking over every single aspect of their lives. In the end, it’s the friendships these guys develop that help them find a way to cope with their problems and feel supported enough to make their voices heard.

The romantic relationships definitely take a back burner in this one, and while I understood that for the most part seeing as friendship was the focus, I would have wished for a bit more development when it came to romantic interests – there was a very caricature-y way both Scarlett’s boyfriend and Amelia Grace’s and Skyler’s summer flings were described. Despite that, the LGBT aspect kept me turning the pages to find out what happens between Amelia Grace and her long-term crush on one of the girls at the lake house.

Altogether, this was a cute and quick read, an homage to friendships and dreamy summers, perfect for everyone who needs a pick-me-up and some feel-good vibes to brighten their day!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I absolutely loved this book. It felt like a warm hug from start to finish. Books that truly get it right about female friendships are few and far between, but this is one of them. It was heartbreaking, empowering, angsty and inspiring all at once. Every single character was meaningful and well-developed. All I want to do now is hug every single one of my female friends and tell them I love them.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

A family crisis brought these girls physically together, but their new found friendship will bind them for life.

This book follows four young women through a summer of great changes. When Scarlett and Skyler's mother discovers her husband's infidelity, she sends out an SOS to her sorority sisters, and they flee to their lake house. There, they reconvene with all the "aunts" and their daughters, Amelia Grace and Ellie. After finding documents belonging to the SBDC, the Southern Belles Drinking Club, the girls agree to trying to achieve one impossibility this summer.

Though they set out to accomplish something impossible, they ended up discovering so much about themselves and each other. The characters each had their own storyline, as well as their own set of issues, and I think because of that, there will be something most readers could relate to.

• Skyler is a "caretaker", whose softball dreams have been sidelined due to juvenile arthritis.

• Scarlett is short tempered, prone to self harm, and struggling with the decision to get more physical with her boyfriend.

• Amelia Grace accidentally came out at a church event. She wants to earn back her position as junior youth minister, but is not sure she wants to sacrifice or hide parts of herself to get it.

• Ellie is a biracial muslim tennis ace, who struggled with body image, identity, and loneliness.

I enjoyed getting to know all four of these young women, and was rooting for them as they grew and changed and discovered so much over the course of the summer. I was definitely feeling some Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants vibes, as there were four women, experiencing life, love, and friendship in the summertime, but that's where it ended.

There were a few things I especially loved:

• The focus on female friendships. I didn't only get to enjoy the friendship that formed between the four main characters, but also was treated to the lifelong friendship their mother's shared. And, it didn't stop there. Allen included some examples of healthy and unhealthy friendships, too, which I always love seeing in juxtaposition.

• The relationship between the twins, Scarlett and Skyler, was far from perfect. Each held some misconceptions about the other, but even as they harbored some ill will for the other, they still took care of one another. There were some really lovely and tender moments shared between them, which warmed my heart, and reminded me of how special a sister's love could be.

• So. Much. Growth. I mentioned it before, but it wasn't only the younger generation that was growing and changing. Allen had the mother's evolving a bit too, and there was one storyline in particular that I really loved.

Overall: It started as the summer of impossibilities, but turned into a summer of friendship, change, and endless possibilities.

From 11 yo: This book is YA but I definitely felt this book is for the older children in that bracket. It contained a lot of adult concepts and language a good dose of sex.
This story is about 4 girls who have to spend the summer together at a lake house. They soon find the remains of a secret club that was there so they decide to remake it. An unlikely friendship comes between the girls and after lots of ups and downs, anger and happiness, they all bond for life.

I thought this book was interesting and explore friendship. I loved the character of Ames (Amelia Grace) the most because of her personality and how much she loves Scarlet. I also like how she disagrees with some aspects of religion even if she is extremely religious. I think each character had some good and bad traits that make them feel human.

The four females in this book had good story lines which were well laid out. The story was ok but I didn't feel like anything really happened. I didn't get caught up in any of the stories. It was almost like emotion was taken out of the characters voices. I found it a bland read which was very disappointing because I was excited to read about summertime friends.
The lack of males (except as a prop) was discouraging. Men / boys can be wonderful support, role models, and cheer leaders. I didn't like the way they were portrayed.

This story told in the voices of four teen girls explores the trials of finding your identity in the face of shifting family dynamics, questions of social and sexual identity, and discovering one's own integrity. As an adult reader, I was able to feel both the parental and adolescent angst, but this book is approachable for readers on both sides of forty. The characters in this book are believable and likable, even in their flaws. The challenges are true to contemporary experience and push the reader to understand what it would be to be "other" in some way.

Overall tells an interesting narrative with a complex main character and interesting surrounding characters. Most of the characters featured in the narrative are well fleshed out and have their own personalities. Very enjoyable.

An escapist read that would be perfect for a summer beach or camping trip!

The Summer of Impossibilities is a great coming of age novel about a group of girls who's mothers are best friends. They are unique and complicated and fully developed girls who I did not always love. I loved the comlexities of their summer together and how that played into their relationships with each other and others. Summer books always seem to have more possibility in them than most and this one did not disappoint.

My The Summer of Impossibilities Top 3:
- Representation! (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, juvenile arthritis, toxic relationships, mental health/self-harm,
LGBTQI+)
- Character-driven
- Power of positive female friendships

Rachael Allen’s The Summer of Impossibilities is an ode to summer, friendship, and diversity. It’s packed with representation, focused on the power of female friendship, and filled with the perfect balance of serious issues and light-heartedness. Say hello to your new favourite summer read!

Set in a lake house in southern American, The Summer of Impossibilities has a real sense of freedom about it. Here, a group of old friends and their daughters can put aside the troubles, challenges, and differences that they face in their everyday lives, coming together for a whole summer of fun, friendship, and impossibility. Allen creates an atmosphere that makes the lake house feel like the perfect spot for her characters to build friendships, discover their identities, and learn just who they want to be.

The Summer of Impossibilities is told from the rotating perspectives of Skyler, Scarlett, Amelia Grace, and Ellie. Skyler and Scarlett are Jewish twins whose parents are dealing with aftermath of an affair (the reason for the summer-long lake house stay).

Skyler is a bright, bubbly softball enthusiast, but her tendency to push through the pain from her juvenile arthritis in order to maintain status as ‘the strong one’ is starting to become overwhelming.

Scarlett is bold, brave, and honest. She’s dealing with the trials of high school relationships, finding who she really is, and navigating struggles with mental health and self-harm.

Amelia Grace is kind-hearted and friendly. She’s always wanted to be a youth leader at her Church, but her decision to take pride in her identity has led to some major rifts in her family and community. She’s fighting to be her true self against opposition from what feels like everyone.

Ellie is a tennis champion from a Muslim background who’s been home-schooled for most of her life. She’s struggled with disordered attitudes to food, body image, and self-confidence, and all she really wants is to make some true friends.

Each of Allen’s characters is unique, important, and multifaceted. This is a very character-driven story, and having four main characters means that the character arcs feel full and engaging.

The central themes of The Summer of Impossibilities hare friendship and identity. The story’s characters are discovering who they are, who they want to be, and how they can count on each other. It’s great to see stories like this one that really focus on how empowering female friendship can be (and that deal with such a wide range of other representation topics).

If I had one wish for this book, it would be a few minor proofing and formatting improvements (I read on Kindle, which may have had an impact). I know that these issues are probably already on track to be fixed before the book’s official publication in May.

I’d recommend The Summer of Impossibilities to fans of Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer and Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart.

I really liked this one. Such a fun and easy read, I will definitely recommend this book to some of my friends.

I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from this author , thankyou to netgalley and author for allowing me to read and review this book.

I thought this book was a really cute summer read! Obviously I didn't read it during the summer but I think a lot of teens will enjoy reading it this summer.
I liked the different perspectives of the four girls and how they didn't really get along at first, but sort of banded together over the summer.
There are little things that were predictable and need a little work, but overall I thought it was a cute summer read.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Four girls that haven't seen each other for years spend the summer together at the lake. They all want to achieve the impossible. Will they?

This was a nice teen story that was enjoyable. I'll be recommending it to the students I teach.

OMG this book was so freaking cute!!!

It has everything the synopsis promises and so much more! This book is told in 4 POVs: Ellie, who is a biracial muslim girl who has been homeschooled her entire life and the only thing she wants is to have best friends like her mom has. Then we have Scarlett and Sky who are twin sisters who couldn't be more opposite in the way they handle pressure: Scarlett externalizes, Sky internalizes everything. Both of them are going through a lot in their own personal lives but also their parents are on the cusp of a divorce and they don't know how to feel about it. And finally, there is Amelia Grace who is trying to figure out how to be completely herself without losing her family, friends and her belief in God.

This book somehow manages to feel both light and heavy at the same time. So much about this book is very light and fun and it gave me major Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants vibes. But then, there is also each individual subplot going on with each girl and those things...well they weren't minor little things. I found myself relating to something from each girl's life and I shed more than one tear whether it was Ellie talking about never feeling "enough" of her culture or Amelia Grace's fear of her mom loving her husband more than she loves her, and so many other topics that I think so many people can relate to. This book shows us such beautiful perfect and yet damaged depictions of friendship and people that is so realistic.

I am so glad I decided to read this book! And if you haven't already, add this book to your tbr because you do not want to miss this YA Contemporary read!

This book was tagged as both children's and YA fiction and children's fiction this is not. I picked this up thinking that it would be a possibly addition to my 8th grade classroom library and the amount of cursing in the first few chapters alone made me want to put this book down. There were also issues of bullying, underage drinking (and tricking someone else into drinking against their religion), and a parent wanting to send their daughter away to a camp to "fix" her being a lesbian. There was a lot of difficult topics coming up and this, coupled with the language, led me to put this book down as it wouldn't be a good fit for my needs.

Sometimes you finish a book and you’re sort of left with a vague annoyance that this is what you spent a portion of your life on. That would be me and this book. It’s not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just not a me book.

The Summer of Impossibilities follows four girls, whose mothers take them to a lake house for the summer, after one’s husband cheats on her. The girls haven’t seen each other since they were five, and they don’t immediately get along.

Here, I have to admit, the blurb is somewhat misleading. None of the events that it says happens are much more than blips. I mean, “a boy she despises”, she dislikes him slightly on their first meeting and then decides she does like him. But that’s sort of beside the point.

I think what disappointed me most about this book was that I came into it expecting an f/f romance. But that romance barely registers – there is scarcely any development (although this is also true of the straight romances), and it doesn’t happen until very late on. Not only that, the lesbian character seems to all but reduced to her crush on her friend. Throughout every bit of her POV (of which there are also fewer than any of the other characters), there’s very little besides an almost exclusive focus on Scarlett (the crush). It’s either that or, on the off chance it’s not, the homophobia of her church. But by reducing Amelia Grace to her crush, she comes off as a lot less fleshed out than any of the other characters. I could tell you about the hopes, dreams, flaws, and so on of the others. I could not tell you the same of Amelia Grace. And also, I am so tired of reading the whole “lesbian hated by her church community” storyline. It featured a little less strongly here than I feared it might, to be fair, but it was still prominent. Are lesbians not allowed to have wholly supportive parents or something? (Also, an aside: the word lesbian ain’t gonna give you cooties or whatever. You can use it to describe a woman who exclusively likes women. That is its meaning.)

Not to mention her love interest is horrible. Like, I got she had traumas to work around and all, but that’s not an excuse to be awful to a character who has done nothing to you. So that put me off reading her POV a fair bit, and also put me off reading Amelia Grace’s POV, because of the aforementioned hyperfocus on the love interest.

And then, for all that it’s good the book doesn’t have a wholly straight white cast, some of that diversity does come across as a little forced, for want of a better word. Like how their being not-white or not-straight is emphasised by them making a “white people” or “straight people” comment? It doesn’t happen in this book, but it felt like that sort of vibe. At first, I grant, because once the author had thus established that these characters were not-white or not-straight, that definitely disappeared. (Another aside: there’s a point at the start where the Indian American Muslim characters stop at a petrol station in the South and make some comment about being stared at as if they’ve never seen brown people before. I couldn’t help but think of multiple tweets I’ve seen recently that have been like, the North is as bigoted as the South, if not more. But anyway.)

But while I was disappointed, there were still some cute parts (Skyler and Bennett, despite how fast their relationship happened, Ellie and Andres, even though theirs happened even faster). It’s just that couldn’t make up for everything else.