Reviewed by hoopsielv for TeensReadToo.com

Mia can't wait to spend the summer in the Hamptons. After all, she just got dumped and there's nothing like the beach to make everything better. Plus, she'll be with her cousin, Corinne, and they've been inseparable every time they're together. It's bound to be a fabulous time!

Right away, Mia sees a big change in Corinne. Everything is "boring" to her and she would rather be anywhere else. Corinne's friend, Gen, has also been invited this summer, and Mia More...

For anyone ages 9-16, "The Summer Of Skinny Dipping" is a perfect preface to their summer vacation. Seriously, start this book with about two weeks left in school and follow the very sound protagonist (Mia Gordon) as she struggles to understand her relationship to her cousin and best friend as it, and they, move from childhood into young adulthood, as she works out her feelings about herself, her body, her family, her fervent effort at shaping her own identity, and as she traces her experiences More...

It's 2:54 am
I shouldn't be up since I'm waking up in just a few hours.
I'm still sobbing.


You know how sometimes you start a book with high expectations
and then as you slowly sink into the first chapters, you just have
the feeling it's just not gonna be as good?

That's what happened to me.
Although I was completely blown away by how much alike Mia and I were,
I just wasn't thrilled, I was just bored for the first 50, maybe 60 pages.

But then I got to know Simon, who is a character I'm gonna remember, More...

After reading this book I am rather disappointed. If you've been keeping up with my progress, then this is no surprise to you. I grabbed this book thinking it would be a fabulous beach read. It seemed light, but with spice as I read the back cover, inspected the title, and was drawn in my the image on the cover. However, it was really lack luster. The main character was boring and even her summer romance was boring. There was not enough spice in this book for me to even recommend it to anyone. T More...

***SPOILERS****
Lets start with the very intreging begginning, I liked the whole consept of the story. A niave girl sets of for a summer of fun with a great cousin.

The first few chapters were hard to get into. I found myself reading one chapter a night - and that meant I was totally uniterested. I wanted a book that kept me reading at school, under the table. Reading at dinner and god forbid, reading on the toilet.

Mia's character was someone I could relate too, very behind the scenes, not wanti More...

When I picked up this book, I was expecting a light, fun, summery read. I was SO wrong. The Summer of Skinny Dipping was a heartbreaking love story, but it was also a real, touching, family story.

I loved the characters very much, mostly because they were so real. Mia, the main character, was very relatable because she was insecure, which is a feeling many of us have/had. But throughout the book, you could really see Mia growing and maturing as a person. Then there is Simon, who was my favorite c More...

This was such a fun book to read. I really liked the characters in the book, and this being Amanda Howells debut novel is amazing, I can not wait to read what she writes next.
I really enjoyed the character of Mia. She is very laid back, doesn't do anything to get in trouble and thinks that when she comes back to her Aunt and Uncle's that everything is going to be the same as it was the summers before with her cousin. But when she arrives she realizes they are not. But that is okay with Mia becau More...

This is going to be a really hard review for me to write because this book was a very hard book to put down. When I first read the blurb and then saw the cover, I thought the story would be a light and fluffy read but it was everything but light and fluffy. This book was a lot deeper than I was expecting.

This book follows Mia Gordon on vacation to the Hamptons over the summer to spend time with her family. Mia and her cousin Corrine used to be tight and Mia cannot wait to see her again but when More...

Bottom Line – a book that changed the way I look at the world, that's for sure! The Summer of Skinny Dipping is one I will be recommending over and over again – to every teen I know. It's got it all, relate-able characters, a story line that keeps you turning pages until the very last chapter, and a beautiful love story, that's rich as well as heartbreaking. Beautiful, in each and every way. I give The Summer of Skinny Dipping a 5++ Mushrooms and I can't wait to have my very own copy of this one More...

Don't let the title fool you. This is not the light read it seems to be. Sure there are cute summer moments that make you go "awww," but it also deals with serious issues. Lots of disfunctional family issues in this read.

The Summer of Skinny Dipping is about finding yourself, even when you're not comfortable in your own skin. While it's about summer love, it's also about loving yourself. The real you, not the one you portray to others. It reminds you that it doesn't matter what other people say More...

Read my full review.

Bottom Line – a book that changed the way I look at the world, that's for sure! The Summer of Skinny Dipping is one I will be recommending over and over again – to every teen I know. It's got it all, relate-able characters, a story line that keeps you turning pages until the very last chapter, and a beautiful love story, that's rich as well as heartbreaking. Beautiful, in each and every way. I give The Summer of Skinny Dipping a 5++ Mushrooms and I can't wait to have my very More...

This book made me laugh and cry. It was basically the closest story to perfect I've ever read. The cover and title makes it seem like a light summer read, but its not really. Its more than that. It has depth and shows that everyone, especially the 'mean girls', are real people with problems of their own. The idea isn't exactly original (there are so many books about girls going to the Hamptons or similar places and find the truth about themselves and their lives), but like I said: I loved this o More...

Mia is turning 16 years old. She recently broke up with her boyfriend. But that doesn’t really surprise her since she never believed a guy like him would go out with a guy like her. But, he was her first boyfriend, so it was something special to her. Mia and her family are now going to her cousins’ beach house for summer vacation, which is a good distraction for her. When Mia gets there, it doesn’t seem to be a distraction for her. Mia’s cousin, Corrine isn’t really herself to Mia. Mia and Corri More...

My new favorite! It reminded me a lot of twenty boy summer but I liked it better
it had great quotes and an amazing story line about opening up to first love and loosing it.
It was amazing and I can't wait to read what amanda howells puts out next: )
If you like meaningful stories that teach you about yourself while reading, this is a good book for that.
Probably not for the hopeless romantics haha
Yes I did end up crying....and I don't really cry in books
but in the end I really did love it More...

This book gave me very mixed emotions. I loved it through the first 250 pages, yet somehow I started hating it toward the end. The end was so unexpected that it almost ruined the book for me. How can a book so good, have such a bad ending? There was no foreshadowing, no reasons for what happened to happen. (I don't want to give away the ending). I can't even critique the rest of the book, which was very good, because of how awful the ending was.

It's about a girl named Mia. She went up to the Ha More...

oh, dear. What a train wreck of a book. I got it for my teenaged daughter, and decided to read it first (what agony!). I found a review that describes the atrocity so well, that I must repeat it here for all to see, so they do not waste their time and money on this author.

Reviewed by Rusty Key Writer: Jordan B. Nielsen

Recommended for: Frankly, no one, but if you must, 13 and Up

One Word Summary: False

Nothing can save a book whose characters don’t ring true, and that’s sadly the fate of ‘The Summe More...

I am a sucker for a pretty cover, and that's what drew me into this book. I saw the pretty cover, read the back and figured it would be worth reading.
And gosh, I think myself that I gave it a chance.

Mia is a very relatable character to me. She's kinda never really felt beautiful, her mother always putting her down, but then a boy, Jake, comes into her life and she feels beautiful… but that very boy ends up breaking her heart. The novel starts off as Mia heading to the Hamptons, ready for an ex More...

This review originally appeared on my blog, www.thebiggestbookshelf.blogspot.co.uk

A different kind of summer vocation novel, Amanda Howells's debut novel was an emotional, beautiful, thought-provoking read. Mia was a realistic and relatable character, even when she constantly compared herself to her perfect, 'flawless' cousins with seemingly enviable lives. This book really captured how it feels to be a teenage girl - not a perfect, happy-with-yourself, boys falling over to be with you teenage g More...

- Review taken from my YA book blog Little Paper Rose

(2.5)

Confession right away: I'd taken the synopsis all too literal before purchasing this book. Basically my interpretation of the summaries had been completely off. I'd expected this to be about Mia, whom, one night as she's swimming in the ocean, either drowns or comes close to it and that the story would take you to moments in her life. You know, that kind of book.

In case anyone (er, doubtful) makes the same mistake.. well, it's not that ki More...

Imagine spending the summer in the Hamptons as a sixteen year old middle class girl. I imagine you would think this book might contain a love interest, a little "growing-up" and some mother issues that are resolved. If you did, this is the book for you.

The Summer of Skinny Dipping is the story of broken hearted Mia, a sixteen year old girl who lives in Atlanta but is spending the summer with her family in the Hamptons after her heart was broken by a teenage boy. Her parents are having financial More...

In the book "The Summer of Skinny Dipping" by Amanda Howells the main character Mia Gordon spends her summer in the Hamptons living every teenage girls dream. She thinks that spending the summer with her cousin will be just how it was when they used to hang out, but things have changed. Her cousin is obsessed with fitting in and being "cool" to her new found friends but Mia just wants to be Mia. One night at a party she meets an interesting boy named Simon who is so different from all of the ste More...

"The Summer of Skinny Dipping" was such a heart wrenching read for me! It started off pretty boring gettig into the home life of Mia..

It is a bit unbelievable that you can misunderstand your own parents for I don't know how many years like that.. THEIR YOUR PARENTS FOR COOKIES' SAKE.

and so I skimmed about fifty pages..

then.


Simon!

He was the epic character. He's unique with his ways of coping and hilarious with his talent to make people laugh.. He's had his past mistakes and is still unable to p More...

I don't like the cover. It's a skinny girl (showing a body from shoulders down) running on the sand. Mia struggles with having a bigger body in the book. It's like someone heard the word beach and picked out a random picture to put with the book. Of course they didn't have time to read it first or consult with the author.

This was worth the read because it made me emotional. I couldn't put it down.

But that only happened after about 50-60 pages. This was the most disappointing thing for me about More...

The cover and blurb don't really do justice to this book in my opinion. I was actually slightly turned off from this book because I thought the cover was a bit too typical: too beach-y, light...another boring-summer-romance-yawn. But it is not at all!

I don't want to give too much away here in this review. I am glad I knew hardly anything about this novel- other than it being recommended for fans of Sarah Dessen- when I started reading it.

Mia Gordon is sixteen and looking forward to spend her sum More...

I don't remember signing up for this book at all. I've been trying to keep a record of all the books I'm signing up for so I can keep up with them, but I obviously didn't do a good enough job. As a result I ended up not realizing I had this book on the way, and it was nice change from all the paranormal I've been reading to read a fairly normal romantic YA.

Mia is normal teenage girl who thought she was in love with her boyfriend, until, that is, he dumped her for a girl that was sticking around More...

Based on the title, The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells sounds like a light, fluffy summer read. And while it is the perfect book to read this summer, it is hardly light and fluffy. In fact, the novel delves into some deep issues and takes several dramatic twists that will keep you turning the pages and mulling over the book long after you’ve finished reading it.

What grabbed me first when I started reading The Summer of Skinny Dipping was the writing itself. Howells has many years exp More...

Reviewed by Rusty Key Writer: Jordan B. Nielsen

Recommended for: Frankly, no one, but if you must, 13 and Up

One Word Summary: False

Nothing can save a book whose characters don’t ring true, and that’s sadly the fate of ‘The Summer of Skinny Dipping.’ Not a glossy location like The Hamptons, not a frighteningly accelerated summer romance, not a bunch of ‘cool’ kids raiding the liquor cabinet and posing as cardboard cutouts of every parent and After School Special’s worst nightmare of youth gone aw More...

Glancing over reviews I see most everyone else has said the same thing as I was planning on saying. This book is not the fluff you expect. Although at times it's carefree and fun it's really a coming of age story and self discovery. There's a lot of talk about feelings and being yourself, who you REALLY are and not just being who everyone else wants you to be. At times I was almost a little tired of all the talk but other times I just really felt a connection, like I really understood Mia and he More...

My ratings were all over the board with this book. I finally settled with two, even though I wanted to just give it one a few times. It's funny, because for a while there I briefly tried to decide between 4 or 5 stars.

In the first half Mia tries to fit in with her beautiful and rich cousins but doesn't do a good job. She tries to understand why she even cares about what they think. This part of the book was ok. Nothing really happens, but I'd rather be in Mia's head, than Beth's. I didn't like More...

In Amanda Howells debut novel she writes a telling story of Mia Gordon journey to finding her self and true love all in the space of one incredible summer. The story had a nice flow starting soft and light in the beginning then building in suspense and surprise that had me turning pages to figure out what troubles Mia and her cousins get into in the Hampton and whether the feelings she and Simon had would grow into something more. The characters felt real and interesting. The interaction within More...