Maybe this book just isn't for me.

I found this to be so incredibly slow. It took forever for anything to start really start happening, and even one it did start, that was slow too.

I felt like there were so many background/side characters in this book (and I usually LOVE a good side character), but I found these ones to not be as fully flushed out and developed as I like. And there were so many. The sheer number of side characters along with them not having that much background and development made it really hard for me to keep track of them all. I often had to go "wait, which one is this again." And that can really pull you out of the story.

And I'm never into a character getting pregnant...sorry, it always feels cheap or like a cop-out. It just didn't quite make sense to me here.

The premise of this book was so cool and had so much potential (it surrounds a summer camp that the main character's family owned) and that could've been so cool and really utilized. But it fell SUPER flat and really dragged. Don't get me wrong, there were definitely some good parts of this book, but overall, I wish it had given me more. Maybe there was just too much going on at once and being too slowly paced that just was not the right combination for a captivating read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My review on Goodreads in up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly wrap-up!

Bummer Camp by A. Garvin is an ok summer read. Cat and her sister Ginger are kind of estranged, but now Ginger needs her help.
Cat reluctantly goes to Summer Camp where everyday madness rules.
Reading this book was like watching a slapstick movie, watching something headless running around achieving nothing.

The cover first caught my eye! I mean, who can resist it? A book from the talented Ann Garvin gives a feeling of pure happiness. Her latest is a funny & sad book with lots going on. I’ve never been to summer camp, but in Bummer Camp, I felt like I was there. It gives a little feeling of holding onto summer a little longer when we’re wrapping up the season.

Thank you, Ann Garvin, Lake Union Publishing, Uplit Reads & netgalley, for my early copy! All opinions are my own.

Sisters Cat and Ginger scramble to save their family’s theater camp after a series unfortunate events threaten to destroy their family’s legacy.

I love anytime I’m able to relive the magic of camp and enjoyed how Bummer Camp puts a spin on the typical summer camp novel.

Bummer Camp is a beautiful story of people coming together to help save a place they care about. The characters are so wonderfully quirky and the easiest to root for. Ann’s humor is woven into the story in all the right places.

There’s also a Wizard of Oz element 🌈

⛺️Happy PUB DAY, Bummer Camp! This was a fun book to kind of wrap up my summer reading as I get ready to lean into more fall books! Thank you to @uplitreads and the author who shared this gifted copy with me.

⛺️ This book centers around two sisters who grew up at a summer camp in Wisconsin. One fled for a life away from camp, while one stayed. But THIS summer Cat gets a frantic call to come back, because camp is in trouble.

⛺️ When I tell you chaos ensued, it ENSUED, y’all. There was a lot going on here! Possible scams, a lot of random drugs, an accidental pregnancy, confusion over exactly who is doing what and who is at fault.

⛺️ At times, I found it all a bit hard to follow but this was also a book that didn’t take itself to seriously (I think). There were a lot of silly and out-there moments that I enjoyed. I really liked the way the sisters came together in the end. This is out today! Is it on your TBR?

This hilarious and touching story of sisters who come together to save the summer camp. But wait .. this story is about so much more. Love, loss, regret, angst, family bonds, possibility, and pregnancy! What an amazing combination brought together through the gifted hands of Ann Garvin. She makes us laugh while we're crying, and creates all the feelings stored inside each of us - as we relive our days at Summer camp!

Description: "Two sisters scramble to save their family’s legacy in a funny, huge-hearted novel about grandiose plans and summers to remember by the author of I Thought You Said This Would Work.

Cat McCarthy has spent years extricating herself from the family business—an increasingly run-down theater camp—and all the drama contained within it. At thirty-seven, she’s putting the final touches on a new life as she renovates her dream cottage and awaits her first child. Does it worry her that the McCarthy legacy is in the hands of her disastrously irresponsible sister, Ginger? Sure. But the camp’s not Cat’s problem anymore.

Then a series of frantic text messages pulls Cat back to center stage. Ginger has handed the reins to a crackpot motivational speaker, Bob Durand, and his scheming wife, Elaine. The couple’s plan to rebrand the camp as a “rehab” for anxious adults has nearly bankrupted the McCarthys. And now the Durands have skipped town days before investors arrive for a fundraising gala that could determine the camp’s future."

4.5 stars rounded up

The second 2/3 of Bummer Camp were a total win for me! The beginning felt a little slow and I was not sure there was going to be a spectacular story in this book, but I was wrong. Totally, and completely wrong.

Cat arrives at Summer Camp and that’s when she begins to crack open. Just a little at first, observing the folks working at camp, the state of things and her own life. Little by little, the crack gets bigger until it all breaks open! The story of how Cat lets go, embraces her family and allows herself to not be perfect is a beautiful one for sure.

Advance reader copy provided by Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

I love reading Ann Gavin's books and I was especially excited about Bummer Camp because hello, camp! Man do I have the best memories growing up attending summer camp. The friends I made, the crafts, swimming in the pool and lake, and all the amazing camp songs. So reading Bummer Camp got me feeling all those cozy feels. The book is about two sisters who grew up attending their families summer camp and later go on to run it themselves.
Cat has a life of her own and a baby on the way. Being alone and independant is exactly how she wants it. Her sister Ginger is set on dragging Cat back into camp drama and a call for help has Cat running back to her childhood home. The camp is in trouble and no matter how much Cat tries not to care deep down she does. The camp has struggled over the years and what started as a theater camp turned into a wellness retreat and really any kind of camp they can offer to get campers signed up!
Is it time to let the camp go or should the sisters come up with a plan to save it? First they need to stop battling each other, next they need to find out what one of the counselors is up to because it's not good, and lastly they need to bury the past and figure out how to move forward because soon Cat will be a mom and she'll need all the support she can get!

Cat’s life revolved around the summer camp her family owned for her whole life, but then she finally extracted herself from it - now she’s independent, pregnant, and very single. Then one night she gets a call from her nephew begging her to come help his mom who now runs the camp - she’s gotten herself into a mess and they need Cat to come save the camp from ruin. Cat runs up to find that they have let the camp be run by a charlatan named Bob and his evil wife and they has run off leaving the very young staff with no supplies or internet (since Bob believed everyone should unplug). In addition, Bob scheduled a gala for donors to visit the camp (although one is coming to try and convince the rest to turn it into a water park). Can Cat, her sister, the handsome groundskeeper and the young staff pull of a gala in less than a week (with no supplies) and try to save the camp from becoming a water park?

I really wanted to love this one, I love summer camp and I the idea behind this one - I just think there was too much going on. I think the basic story was great: family run camp, family drama, cute groundskeeper come together to save a camp - all ingredients for a wonderful feel good summer camp story. There were just too many other ingredients thrown in pot that muddied the water. Some parts of the book were really enjoyable but I did feel that the story got a bit unfocused at times and therefore my mind wandered while reading as well.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union for the ARC

Feeling woebegone because summer is almost over? Need one last infusion of summer vibes?
Bummer Camp offers that and much more. My sympathy lay with Cat for the majority of the book given what I was reading. I really had a strong dislike for Ginger based on what I believed was her messing up and Cat having to fix everything all the time.
Garvin fooled me with a lot, Including the true nature of some of the characters and even the real name of one of them!!!
I do wish Steve had been carried off by the storm but maybe in the future.
I love the colorful cover and also the feeling of the belonging Bummer Camp creates for its guests.
I was never a camp kid but I enjoyed reading about summer camps and their antics.

This is a great book to begin as summertime is winding down.

Thirty-seven year old Cat is very pregnant when she gets a text from her beloved nephew, Shirtless, that the family owned theater camp is in trouble. Cat has tried to distance herself from family, but when she finds out that her name may be on the mortgage she heads for the woods.

Cat gets to camp to find that the camp has gone from a camp that helps all kids feel a sense of belonging to a camp for sad adults. Cat also watches as the guy that is running the camp takes off leaving them in a bind.

Cat, her sister, Ginger, and a wonderful mixed bag of counselors try to successfully hold a gala that will hopefully save the camp from being turned into a water park.

This book is sweet, funny, and deals with family dynamics. It also gave me a warm fuzzy feeling as I read it and embraced all the personalities that made the camp tick.

This is a beautiful story of two polar opposite sisters working to save their family’s legacy. And as the Cat to my sisters’ Ginger, this book HIT HOME. Set at a summer camp, this was the perfect end of summer read that made me cry and laugh out loud. And in true Ann Garvin fashion, there is a sweet canine sidekick that steals the show. This book was an unexpected, but exciting, whirlwind of a story filled with all the feels and I loved every second of it.

A failing children's theater camp, a band of misfits and underdogs, sister/family drama, and ties to the Wizard of Oz(!) made Ann Garvin's new release the perfect summer book full of laughs and heartfelt moments.

Two sisters, Cat and Ginger, were raised at their parents' Summer Camp property in Wisconsin. Now 37, Cat wants nothing to do with the run-down property; she is tired of being the dependable sister and is hard carved our her own sanctuay/home while getting ready to birth her first child. Yet, an urgent text, a greedy charlatan, and desperation convince Cat to return to the camp to help salvage a last hurrah fundraising gala. Cat and Ginger must corral the summer staff with zero funds and supplies to make the gala a success, why reconciling their own relationship and memories of their past.

Every.single.character in this book is a riot. If you enjoy stories about misfits and underdogs, you will love the staff of Summer Camp and be rooting for their success. Convincing the public of a place's value or significance is a tough job, but Garvin and her cast convinced me that all my life is missing in a week at Summer Camp! There are so many LOL moments, but also equally tender ones. There is a tragically shady 'baby daddy', a swoony groundskeeper who likes to skinny dip, and a chef who *might* be adding an illegal ingredient to the camp food. I loved the older characters, appreciated the nostalgic setting, and enjoyed the character growth between sisters, Cat and Ginger.

Thank you UpLit Reads for including me on this book tour!

To be honest, I struggled getting into this book. I put it down for a while, came back and was able to read it.
I just don't think I was able to love all the characters that were presented in the book.

As summer draws to a close, I was excited to dive into one final read influenced by a quintessential seasonal activity, camp. Unfortunately in Bummer Camp, the
bummer aspect is highlighted more than I’d hoped as this read was a bit of a letdown.

This story revolves sisters Ginger and Cat. Always at odds, the two opposites are forced to work together to try to save the family business- a theater camp. Although there’s always been a love/hate relationship with the camp, the possibility that it will be reintroduced as a rehab for adults leaves both sisters scrambling to save their sanity, and their life savings.

I’m not sure what it was exactly, but I struggled getting into the story right away. I kept pushing, but admittedly after sneaking some looks at others who reviewed and felt the same, I ended up DNFing. That being said, the story may have gotten better if I kept reading. I suppose after reading and enjoying Until Next Summer, another ode to reflecting on summer memories, it was hard not to compare the two.

The premise of this book is so appealing. For me the beginning of the book didn’t hook me. Cat was a difficult character to relate to, and initially the story unfolded in a bit disjointed manner. The ending was well written and enjoyable. The growth Cat made was well written. Overall a good story.

Thank you to the author for an ARC of this book. I have not read any other books by this author but my Bookclub has so I thought I would try this one out. This story is about a camp in Wisconsin that is failing and a sister is asked to come back by the sister who lives at the camp full time for help. This story is all over the place. Way too many characters. Way too much stuff going on. The title is only referred to in the last part of the book and doesn’t even really make sense. Unfortunately, this was not an enjoyable book for me.

I love a good sister story. And a good summer story. And a good laugh. Ann Garvin's BUMMER CAMP is all these things and more. It's an invitation to unplug and come along to a nostalgic summer-camp where kids and grown-ups of all ages are welcome, filled with sweetly flawed, earnest characters who are doing their best .... and a literal whirlwind of a story that leaves you loving them all just the way they are.

I've been reading Ann Garvin's work for years, and my absolute favorite thing is how her author bio says she sets out to write "about women with a good sense of humor who do too much in a world that asks too much from them." No wonder I find her characters so relatable. The sisters trying to save their family's titular BUMMER CAMP couldn't be more different—but they also might not know each other quite as well as they think they do. Even when they're letting each other down, they're still capable of surprising each other and even themselves. I loved how this book celebrated the simple traditions that are perfectly imperfect just the way they are, while also showing that we're never too old or too cynical to change and grow into better versions of ourselves. BUMMER CAMP is the best kind of group hug. I'm already looking forward to Ann Garvin's next one.

Such a good read that I enjoyed! I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

This book gave me major summer vibes and gave me a sense of nostalgia that I didn't know I needed. I wish I could read this book over and over again for the first time to get the feeling that I did when I read it. I can absolutely see my patrons loving this one just as much as I did!