Summer of YesterdaySummer of Yesterday by Gaby Triana

Summer of Yesterday by Gaby Triana
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

So many things I liked.

All of the things 1982. I've never been to Disney World but the description of the campgrounds and water park are wonderful. Included are the fashions, music, pop culture, and pace of the world in 1982.

The story had a great concept. Haley does a little Back to the Future blip and finds herself in 1982. She passes her parents, age 15 and 16, right at the beginning of their relationship. This is not the central part of the story. The central part is Jason, the 1982 19 year old. He's hot. He wears too short of shorts with piping and a gold chain. People feather their hair. Olivia Newton John is singing about getting physical. Blade Runner is coming out.

So I was a teenager in 1982. We did wear a lot of rainbows and our socks came up to our knees. To consider seeing an IPhone in 1982 would have seriously caused me to doubt my sanity. A little computer you carry in your pocket that makes calls, takes pictures, types messages, and plays games? No way. I was playing Asteroids at the Arcade. That was cutting edge. Pretty sure our telephones weren't cordless. Charlie's Angels had car phones but I didn't. It was fun to delve into that train of thought.

What I didn't like was the rushed ending. It could have taken so many different directions and it seemed like it took the easiest road that left more questions than answers. It was incomplete and rushed. I think there were too many strands left within the story and not enough pages to pick them up at the end. I have no problem with how it ended for Haley and Jason. It was just sudden and complete.

I think a major turning off point for me was that the central part of the story was Haley's and Jason's romance. There was the side story of Haley's in the wrong time and that part was fun. If that was moved more center stage, I think I would have enjoyed it more. But Haley is a thinking about how to lose her virginity to a guy who is well into his forties in her real time. Not okay with that. At the end Haley has some conclusions that I don't know how she reached because they weren't developed.

*Disclaimer* I read an ARC so the book was not final. I received a copy from Edelweiss for an honest review.