Review: Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Title: Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: April 27th, 2010

Genres: Romance, Drama

Medium: Paperback, bought

Let me start off by saying I never DNF books. But with this novel, absolutely had to. I made it 136 / 340 pages in, and even at that, I couldn't finish it. It was 136 pages too many. I honestly can say I haven't attempted to read a novel this boring in a long time.

The plot was acceptable. I was imagining a quirky little summer romance novel, but instead, I got one of the most lengthy, dragging on novels ever. The story was slow and uneventful, & a little unrealistic. Everything seems so fake and forced. The characters are extremely two-dimensional and flat, and have absolutely no character development whatsoever. This reminds me of a soap opera, a terrible eventless soap opera. There's no real emotion or driving force, which makes the whole story nearly impossible to connect with.

The wedding was also very bland. Once again, I have found another number where the author seems to write with all this education, but at the same time, it's unnecessary. It seemed forced and rehearsed as well, a little too theatrical and over dramatic and fleshed out and too descriptive. It lacked depth and emotion and I felt as if I was reading a catalog. The writing improves my overall opinion of the story by a small margin, but not nearly enough to save it from DNF.

Overall, this is one of the in extremely seldom times I will DNF a novel (like, count on one hand seldom.) It felt like trudging through quicksand. The story had a lot of promise, but quickly ruins that within the first 4 pages. Wish this premise have been taken in a completely opposite direction.