Book Review: Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

Rating: ☆☆
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 359 pages
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: April 24th, 2018
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A summer read about first love, feminism, and ice cream.

Summer in Sand Lake isn’t complete without a trip to Meade Creamery—the local ice cream stand founded in 1944 by Molly Meade who started making ice cream to cheer up her lovesick girlfriends while all the boys were away at war. Since then, the stand has been owned and managed exclusively by local girls, who inevitably become the best of friends. Seventeen-year-old Amelia and her best friend Cate have worked at the stand every summer for the past three years, and Amelia is “Head Girl” at the stand this summer. When Molly passes away before Amelia even has her first day in charge, Amelia isn’t sure that the stand can go on. That is, until Molly’s grandnephew Grady arrives and asks Amelia to stay on to help continue the business…but Grady’s got some changes in mind…

NOT SWEET ENOUGH.

Meh.

That’s how this book made me feel. What seemed like a cute young adult rom-com really never reached that whatsoever. Amelia focused SO MUCH on her best friend Cate that I honestly started thinking that this book must be about her. I was tired of hearing about Cate because I wanted to see some development in Amelia. She had no backbone and whined the entire book about not being good enough. Wow did that get old.

I did think the romance was mostly sweet. If it had been a larger part of the story I think it would have helped the books overall case. Also, this book made me want to make ice cream. So those are the redeeming qualities I found.

Going back and forth in the timeline to a different character didn’t mesh well either. I felt taken out of the book each time it flipped to Molly’s perspective. Yes, it was integral to the story but only at a forced angle. Only the last few pieces added to Amelia’s world and finally made her get it together.

Very underwhelmed by this.

Overall audience notes: