MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT BY JESSICA PENNINGTON // spoiler-free book review: swimming, summer and enemies-to-lovers gloriousness

Look at me!! Reading an ARC on time!!

I feel accomplished and my life is complete.

Anyways I’m here to talk about this delightful book that I also positively devoured in 12 hours. MY READING MOJO IS TRULY BACK MY FRIENDS!!

Title: Meet Me At Midnight
Author: Jessica Pennington
Page count: 336
Date published: 7 April 2020
Genre: Young Adult romance contemporary

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Synopsis:

They have a love-hate relationship with summer.

Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two-star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But every summer it’s the same—

in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding the ultimate ways to prank each other. And now, the summer after their senior year, they’re determined to make it the most epic summer yet.

But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects summer to continue as usual. But then she gets a note—Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer of epic pranks, against a shared enemy—the woman who kicked them out.

Their truce should make things simpler, but six summers of tormenting one another isn’t so easy to ignore. Kind of like the undeniable attraction growing between them.

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STAR RATING: (4 out of 5 stars)

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A thank you to Tor Teen for providing me with an eARC via Netgalley to review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I kid you not when I tell you that as soon as I started this book that I. COULD. NOT. PUT. IT DOWN. My eyes did not rest and I may have caused permanent damage but all for a good cause amirite?

Truly this book is MARVELLOUS!! And ADDICTIVE AS HECK!!

First off, let me just tell you how HILARIOUS it is. I couldn’t stop laughing and I had this gleeful smile across my face almost the entire time. I was a giddy idiot and I feel absolutely no shame at all. This whole book felt like it was one of those teenage rom-com movies and I could just picture it all in mind and ahhh what a glorious time it was.

The writing was super lovely. It was easy to read and the descriptions were simple yet still, I could picture it all very vividly. I felt like I was there, which is ya know probably a great sign eyyy.

What the author got really right were the POVs. The book is told in dual POV and she nailed it spot on with them each having their own distinct voices. You didn’t have to concentrate too hard on the chapter headers to tell whose head you were in, which is always a good sign.

We all just all need to take a moment to also appreciate how glorious the ENEMIES TO LOVERS WAS!! And also childhood friends to lovers because that’s also in there. This book just has all the good tropes in it and I’m LIVING MY BEST LIFE. The whole setup of this book just WOW PURE ROMANCE GENIUS WE STAN!!

The third glorious aspect of this book (shhh this apparently just our word of the day) was THE FREAKING BANTER!! Oh, my golly goodness gracious me was it so good. I do not over-exaggerate when I say I would literally start cackling. That character banter was just omg *chef’s kiss*

Also, omg loved how it was SUMMER!! I truly don’t read enough contemporary books set in the summer. And because it’s so dang hot where I live, I just really appreciated that.

• The parents: oh my gosh these parents!! They’re put in this collective category because they all more or less have the same role in the book whoops, but they were great. Love how they played totally oblivious to their kids ahhh DEAD.
• Kara: we didn’t have many side characters in this book, which I totally didn’t mind, but I did love her addition to the cast because we both shipped Sid and Asher from the beginning. I was like “same girl” throughout the entire book HA.
• Sidney: how this girl is so dedicated to her tasks and oblivious at the same sometimes TRULY astounded me. Because again HARD SAME. I LOVED her as a main character, even though I wanted to shake her a lot of the time. She’s in an introvert, so relatable and also always wanting to be organised and neat. Again relatable.
• Asher: but this boy right here was BY FAR my favourite character. Don’t ask me why. I don’t really understand why myself. I think I related a tad more on an emotional level, not to be sappy or anything. He was just so sweet and also a lovesick puppy which I wanted to squeeze hugs out of. I loved his character development and his smol heart. AGHHH JUST LOVE HIM TO BITS!!

What was the best part of the book you ask? I mean you already know the answer. THE ROMANCE DUDE OMG I WAS DYING!! I shipped them so hard and just sat there the entire book, dissecting everything into the small signs. And I mean, of course, I was right. Not to brag but I’m ALWAYS right. Truly though, the romance was so great. The two of them just have so much chemistry omg. They truly are so good together. I’m just a sappy hopeless romance sucker folks, I know. There was a lot of drama, obviously, but I was there the whole time rooting for them.

I don’t really have any complaints. The only issues I had with this book was 1) the plot was not always great. It was a bit all over the place and didn’t always stay coherent. And then 2) was the unnecessary break-up drama towards the end. I’m not going to spoil anything but this ‘trope’ always bugs me and I never like it. It just doesn’t need to be there and I always want to strangle the characters when it happens…

Also, I WANTED MORE OF AN EPILOGUE!!! Just a bit more. It’s more likely my heart wasn’t ready to let go just yet. I am a hopeless case.

Also, excuse the THOUSAND !! in this review because WOW I must’ve been on something.

Jessica Pennington is no stranger to the combination of love and drama. She’s a wedding planner, after all. A writer since the age of ten—when she sought publication for her poem about a tree—Jessica likes the challenge of finding the humour in a sad situation or highlighting the awkwardness in a romantic one. A serial entrepreneur with a B.A. in public relations, Pennington has a passion for grassroots marketing. She lives in a Michigan beach town, where she owns more YA novels than many teens and spends most of her time on a laptop, rather than a beach.

Learn more about Jessica and her books HERE.

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HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? ARE YOU GOING TO? WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE CONTEMPORARIES? OR YOUR FAVOURITE ENEMIES TO LOVERS ROMANCES? I’D LOVE TO KNOW!

xo