Winter Untold (Summer Unplugged, #3) by Amy Sparling Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews of Summer Unplugged and Autumn Unlocked on my blog now!

Bayleigh is once again obsessing over the fact that her hot racer boyfriend has an ever-growing fan club of girls that surround him at every waking moment. While she was definitely showing signs of maturing in Autumn Unlocked, it felt as though she was regressing in this installment. She is back to being glued to her phone and stalking her boyfriend's tagged photos on Facebook, along with avoiding any and all confrontation to talk about her feelings with Jace.

Meanwhile, Chase, her new neighbor, has moved in and clearly is crushing on Bayleigh while she remains utterly oblivious to every advance he makes. I will say that Chase somehow became the voice of reason in this book and actually gave Bayleigh some pretty solid advice when she expressed her concerns over all of the girls that were posting pictures with Jace. I do wish that there was actually some conflict in this book -- it was mostly one-sided internal hurt on Bayleigh's end, while Jace was completely in the dark in regards to her feeling insecure in their relationship.

Becca's presence is more involved compared to the other books, and she seemed to be the driving force in a lot of Bayleigh's jealous tendencies. She does have her moments, but to put it plainly, Bayleigh needs to chill out before she destroys her relationship with Jace on her own. There are pages and pages of her moping about how many girls will post pictures with Jace, but she literally refuses to do anything about it and only lets her jealousy boil over.

I truly would have preferred some sort of love triangle at any point during this book, just to make the plot more interesting and actually have something intriguing happen with any of the characters. I think I will give the fourth novella a shot before deciding if I want to move forward to seeing this series through, because 11 novellas is pushing my patience just a little bit. Every character -- except Jace -- in some serious need of character development and some frontal lobe formation in the next novella, because the maturity level -- or lack thereof -- is baffling.

If you are looking for a quick contemporary romance read that has low stakes, you may enjoy this seasonal series.

You can add Winter Untold on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to dat eon releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Autumn Unlocked (Summer Unplugged, #2) by Amy Sparling Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of Summer Unplugged on my blog now!

Bayleigh and Jace... oh how I (somewhat) remember your very interesting love story on a farm? Rural town? Bayleigh was banished to stay with her grandparents -- without her cell phone in hand -- after some not-so-wise decisions, which ultimately led to her romance with Jace. I went into this sequel with the hope that Bayleigh gained some critical thinking skills, and to my surprise, she is a touch more reasonable compared to her antics in Summer Unplugged.

With the school year gearing up to begin, Bayleigh is slightly insecure in her relationship with Jace -- he is experiencing an entirely different world compared to her beginning senior year of high school, and the time away from him after spending all summer is taking a toll on her. She certainly has enough time to have her phone confiscated by a teacher and land herself in detention approximately two minutes after gaining phone privileges back, but I would not expect anything less.

Jealousy is running ramped within Bayleigh, and every single time she sees Jace interact with a girl or friend a girl on Facebook, her mind goes to the worst case scenario, which essentially creates a ton of unnecessary drama between them. Most of the "arguments" that Jace and Bayleigh get into are resolved quickly, and honestly I was happy to see both of them using some common sense -- Jace definitely excels in that department compared to Bayleigh.

It was nice to see some additional side characters in this book, and Bayleigh certainly needed some guiding voices to keep her jealousy at bay. Jace continues to be a respectful boyfriend, and has a level of maturity I would not expect to come from a young adult lead. Bayleigh's mother was more involved this time around, and their dynamic has had a drastic improvement, considering in the first book she had Bayleigh sent to stay with her grandparents.

This sequel is a definitive improvement to the first installment, especially with Bayleigh's characterization. Keeping in mind that she is a teenager and has had poor luck with guys, I will give her some grace in the way that she acts, but here is to hoping that she has even more development as the series continues. I am definitely inclined to continue with this series when I have some free time, and they make excellent reads if you are looking for something to get you back into the reading groove.

You can add Autumn Unlocked on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Summer Unplugged (Summer Unplugged, #1) by Amy Starling Review

This review contains spoilers for Summer Unplugged. It is currently available for free on iBooks and other ebook platforms.

Bayleigh is boy-obsessed and critical thinking skills-lacking on so many levels. She does so many questionable things in the first five chapters that I felt as though I had whiplash. Bayleigh goes from sneaking out (unsuccessfully) to sending pictures of herself to her "boyfriend" in under twenty four hours, and is shocked that her mother does not approve of her behavior.

She is sent to spend the rest of the summer with her grandparents and with no phone, which we see her complaining about on every other page. And to get the attention of Jace, the boy next door, she breaks one of her mother’s childhood snow globes and does not even care. Bayleigh is probably one of the most unlikable characters I have ever read since she genuinely thinks she can do no wrong and that she does not deserve anything her mother has done to her.

Bayleigh has known Jace for all of maybe three or four days when she takes it upon herself to delete messages from his ex-girlfriend. I understand that she does not have any consistent contact with her friends or even her mom during the summer, but I do not think she had the right to do that, even if Jace's ex cheated on him.

Of course Ian, Bayleigh's situationship, is a "Can I get a hug?" boy, it totally checks out. When he visits her at her grandparents, he is so annoying and rude to Bayleigh that I was tempted to skip the pages he was on. The relationship between Bayleigh and Jace moved so incredibly quickly I felt as though I missed the entire thing -- it felt so rushed and not in a "love at first sight" kind of way, but in a "we are the only two people our age in this town, so let's make it work" kind of way.

If you are looking for a quick young adult romance read as a filler between books, Summer Unplugged will check that box. As a general disclaimer, the main character severely annoyed me with almost everything that she did. Yes, she is a teenager, but the way she acts towards her mother for doing the bare minimum when it comes to being grounded astounds me.

You can add Summer Unplugged and the rest of the series on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on publications and releases.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!