Lost Summer by Alex McAulay

When Caitlin Ross's mother takes her and her brother to an island in the remote Outer Banks for the summer, Caitlin is furious. She was planning on spending the summer hanging out by the pool, partying, shopping, and singing backup in her boyfriend's band, Box of Flowers. North Carolina isn't anything like California, and Caitlin doesn't fit in. But her troubled mother is too busy popping pills and trying to win back her creepy ex-boyfriend to care.

At first, the only friend Caitlin makes on the desolate island is a local misfit named Danielle. But things start to improve when she meets a bunch of visiting prep school boys and gets swept up in their exciting world. Then, one dark night, she witnesses a murder and begins to suspect that her new friends aren't really her friends at all. With a powerful hurricane approaching, and the island cut off from the outside world, Caitlin has no one to turn to but herself . . . and whether she'll live to see another summer is the biggest mystery of all.

Stars: 3/5

Cover: A-

Caitlin and her little brother, Luke, are forced to move across the country for the summer, into a run down nobody town on a desolate island. Her mom's reasons for making them spend the summer there is that they're becoming too spoiled, and need to get away from their lifestyles for a little while. But when they get to the island, Caitlin soon realizes that her mom's real intentions were only to go so that she could be with her creepy ex-boyfriend, Bill, from when she was a teenager.

Caitlin meets Danielle, an island local, and they become fast friends. 

When Bill tries to make a move on  Caitlin, Caitlin quickly moves Luke and herself out of the hotel and into Danielle's house. Caitlin's mom is too drugged up to care.

As the weeks pass, Caitlin meets Evan and his friends, who are visiting the island from California. Evan becomes a romantic interest for Caitlin, and they start dating.

But then Caitlin witnesses one of Evan's friends commit a murder on the beach, and there's no police station on the island. Then, the phone lines are disconnected because of the approaching hurricane. There's no way for Caitlin to notify the authorities. Caitlin tries to tell Evan about the murder she witnessed, but he gets mad at her for "making up stories about his best friend."

Caitlin immediately thinks he is going to go tell his friend what Caitlin had accused him off, and his friend is going to come after her, so she decides that she and her family need to get off of the island.

This book is going to be really difficult to review. The writing was really strong in some places, really weak in others, and so-so the rest of the time.

But let's start with the things I liked.

My favorite thing was the storyline, and the idea behind the plot. What could be more thrilling than a murderer coming after you during a hurricane when there is no power, no way to get off the island, and no way to contact the outside world?

I thought Caitlin was pretty likable, along with Danielle. But, really, those were the only characters that I felt were realistic.

The thing that I disliked most about this book was the dialogue. It sounded scripted. I know that's a weird thing to say, since it is a book, but most of the time the characters' conversations didn't flow nicely and felt kind of fake.

One thing really didn't add up to me, though. At the beginning of the book, Caitlin was able to call her friends back home all the time from her cell phone. But at the end of the book, when Caitlin is trying to get ahold of the police on the mainland, and is unsuccessful, she doesn't even try to use her cell phone. I mean, I get that it was stormy out and that she probably wouldn't have gotten signal anyways, but if it was me and I was that desperate, I would have at least tried.

The murder didn't even happen until page two hundred! I felt like there were about ninety pages of story that was unneeded, and irrelevant in the middle of the book. It would have been a much better read if the book wasn't weighed down with that.

Okay. I know all of that sounded like a rant, and I really didn't mean for it to be! That stuff just bugged me, and I really needed to get it out there. :P

But, overall, I did enjoy the book, and I didn't feel like reading it was a waste of time. However, I don't find the book very memorable.

Just warning you, there is a lot of cussing in this book.

It would have been a quick read . . . if I hadn't kept getting distracted by Twitter!

I would recommend you guys to read this book, though, and develop your own opinions about it. If you have read it, tell me what you think about it!