A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Title: A Midsummer's Nightmare

Author: Kody Keplinger

Publisher: Poppy

Release Date: June 5, 2012

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Happens to be whatshisname, Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother…at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical, Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about. 

So far, I have loved everything Kody Keplinger has written and it was no different with A Midsummer's Nightmare. I would eve go so far as to say that it is my favorite of Kody Keplinger's books. It was seriously awesome.

For the past four years, Whitley's life has been about the parties and hooking up with random guys. And graduation night is no different. The next morning she wakes up next to a boy she doesn't know and makes a quick exit. Now Whitley is ready for a summer with her dad, only to have him surprise her with a soon-to-be stepmom and two step siblings. One of which is Nathan, the guy from graduation night. After that revelation, Whitley's summer can only get better. Except it doesn't really. But with a new friend and a family she might actually like, things start looking up. And Nathan isn't her stepbrother just yet.

A Midsummer's Nightmare was simply an amazing book. I'm no exactly sure how I can accurately describe just how amazing it was. I loved Kody Keplinger's two other books, but I simply adored this one. Right when I started reading, I knew I would have trouble putting the book down and it ended up being true. The story itself in A Midsummer's Nightmare was fantastic. It went places I didn't think it woud go and I liked that it did that. I especially liked al the different relationships Kody Keplinger presented in this story. None of them were perfect and each one had a different degree of dysfunctionality. But that's what made them so great and in turn made the story so great. 

Kody Keplinger has a knack for making me completely love characters I wouldn't like under other circumstances. That was the case with Whitley. On the surface she's your typical party girl, but once you dig a little deeper you realize that it's all really just a cover. And that's what made me love Whitley. Little by little she realized she didn't have to be all alone. And part of that was Nathan. Despite what we learn about his past, Nathan is a really good person and good for Whitley...though those aren't his only qualities. But he's not the only one who's good for Whitley like that. The same can be said for Bailey, Harrison and Sylvia. All of them ended up showing Whitley that she doesn't have to shut herself out from everyone around her. And I loved seeing Bianca and Wesley again, however briefly.

A Midsummer's Nightmare was an absolutely fantastic read. Kody Keplinger really knows her stuff and her books just keep getting better. If you haven't read one of her books yet, you should because you are seriously missing out.