The Summer My Life Began

The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

You might have noticed that I shelved this in my 3-neurons-involved shelf (and please note, it is not a shelf with a derogatory purpose, it's just dedicated to vanilla, fluffy, light reads I seem to enjoy so much when I feel overcome by... well, life). Most books that end up in that shelf are books I actually liked. That being said, you barely need 2 neurons for this book. Actually, make that 1.
And I'm quite disappointed to be honest, because the idea wasn't bad at all.

Margaret Elizabeth belongs to a well-off, pseudo-aristocratic family (imagine Gilmore girls), one of those who strive for elitism, the life paths of their children set in stone, with no choice whatsoever. She is meant to go to Harvard in the fall, become a lawyer and work in the family's firm.
When she receives and invitation from a mysterious aunt asking her to spend some time on the Outer Banks where she runs a B&B, she decides to take advantage of the good opportunity for her to relax and recharge her batteries before college.
Life on the island is nothing like the life she's used to: from her sweet aunt Tilly to her cute cousin Frederick, from the eccentric cook Domino to the magnetic and brooding Cade. As she gets settled and adjusts to the island's rhythm, she starts discovering clues as to the reasons why her aunt has never been mentioned before by her family... which might be more life-changing than what she bargained for.

So... a tropical getaway island? Soft sand and sunny days? A hot surfer guy with some secrets? Sign me up, please, I'm all ears. Then why did it go so wrong?
This book has no depth whatsoever, unfortunately. There's no depth in the characters, who ended up being pretty two-dimensional, and never got developed enough up to the point that some of them come out being cardboard caricatures (the grandmother? the mother? the sister?).
But most of all, and this is the biggest problem of this book, there's no depth in the writing.
There's a lot of telling, and very little showing.
A whirlwind of actions, places and scenes one after the other, they sounded almost like theatre stage directions in some points. It was all too fast, leaving me no time to appreciate the characters, the emotions, even the scenery.
Furthermore, the big ending revelation(s) that we discover at 94%, I guessed them around the 20% mark. A tad predictable? Everything is just too perfect, works out too well, at the right moment.I know this is fiction but it's gotta be believable.

The general impression is that this book could have been as good as Wanderlove, if only the writing and the characterization had been taken to a more... "experienced" level. I think this author has still a lot to learn.