Meet Me at Midnight - Review

Meet Me At Midnight

By: Jessica Pennington

Expected Publication: April 7th 2020 by Tor Teen

288 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--They have a love-hate relationship with summer.

Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But it’s the same every year—in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding the ultimate ways to prank each other. And now, after their senior year, they’re determined to make it the most epic summer yet.

But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects the prank war to continue as usual. But then she gets a note—Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer of epic pranks, against a shared enemy—the woman who kicked them out.

Their truce should make things simpler, but six years of tormenting one another isn’t so easy to ignore. Kind of like the undeniable attraction growing between them.

For some reason I was skeptical of Meet Me at Midnight. I really can't nail down a reason for that. Maybe because I wasn't familiar with the author, but I read new (to me) authors all the time and this isn't really an issue. Regardless after a great start to my 2020 reading, I started feeling myself sliding into a reading slump. I had a bunch of books to choose from, but none of them seemed to fit my mood. Until I decided to give Meet Me at Midnight a chance. Honestly, I was putting it off simply due to the publication date. It didn't publish for 3 more months and I had other review books due sooner. Yet I know myself well enough to know that mood is everything when it comes to my reading. And I'm so glad that I settled on this book.

Sidney and Asher have been vacationing together for years. Their moms went to college together and have kept in touch through the years. Every summer they rent lake houses side by side. The first year Sidney and Asher got along great. Until a catalyst sparked their prank rivalry. I loved this aspect. I've never quite been brave enough to participate in a prank war. One of those "don't dish out what you can't handle" kind of things, but my dad was a huge prankster and he was routinely pranking the guys he worked with when I was growing up. I have to say that I wish there had been a little more actual pranking during the book rather than just a few pranks and a good bit of memories surrounding pranks of the past.

Sidney and Asher have a hate-to-love relationship which I love. I could tell these two had more under the surface of their feud. Figuring out why it got started didn't take too much. But the roller coaster ride of their relationship was so enjoyable. I didn't want to put this book down. They have ups and downs, and ***SPOILER*** (highlight to see)I appreciated that Sidney was the one who screwed up and had to get Asher to forgive her. ***END SPOILER*** I also appreciated that these two had a journey to forgiveness that wasn't just fixed will the snap of their fingers.

I will say that my only real complaint is concerning the parents. It seems that both sets knew that Sidney and Asher's relationship changed from enemies to being together. So how come they were so hands-off? Not only did they not acknowledge the relationship, but they never established or enforced any boundaries between these two. If anything, they seemed to encourage a lack of boundaries.

I enjoyed Meet Me at Midnight so much more than I expected. It was the perfect book for me at just the right time. I ate up Sidney and Asher's relationship...each phase of it. I didn't want to put it down. And I want to certainly check out more from Jessica Pennington. Meet Me at Midnight gets 4 Stars. Have you read Meet Me at Midnight? What did you think? Let me know!