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Review: Last Summer at Eden by Christina Hergenrader

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Last Summer at EdenLast Summer At Eden
Christina Hergenrader
Concordia House
Published on March 1, 2017

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About Last Summer at Eden
Poppi Savot needs a new direction. After her mother’s death to cancer, the smalltown Minnesota girl can’t seem to find her true north anymore. So when she gets a call from a small Christian camp in Southern California, Poppi races into the unknown, hoping a new job will solve everything.
When she arrives at Camp Eden, things already start falling apart. With camp enrollment at a record low and camp about to close for good, her new boss tells Poppi she may as well pack up and head straight back home. But Poppi isn’t giving up. Walking into Camp Eden, she felt the first stirring of peace since she lost her mom, and she’s not going to let go of that without a fight. Poppi rallies together the camp’s ragtag team of counselors and launches a plan to save Eden.

My Review
Last Summer at Eden might get the award for most fun book I’ve read this year. It absolutely felt like being away at summer camp! I loved the references to camp songs and all the emotional highs and lows of the campers plus all the drama that comes from being in close quarters with strangers for ten weeks.

The romance part of the story is sweet and doesn’t dominate. I liked that Poppi figures things out for herself, and that it’s not a “hey, a man has the answers,” kind of story. I also liked the balance between Poppi’s goal of saving the camp and the evolution of her relationship with God.

Last Summer at Eden has some unforgettable characters, too. I loved Wolfgang, the German foreign exchange counselor and the cook obsessed with recycling. And Nat! The enthusiastic, cheerleader who tells the truth straight-up, best friend everyone needs. Everyone seriously needs a Nat in their lives.

The only thing I kind of wished were different about this book is that it were told from the perspective of a younger character (like one of the counselors). That would have placed it more solidly within the young adult arena. At nineteen, Poppi’s a little older than the average young adult heroine.

I liked the book anyway, and I think readers who enjoy books by Laura L. Smith (everyone needs a little Laura L. Smith in their lives, just like Nat!) will absolutely love Last Summer at Eden.

Readers looking for a clean and also hilariously fun camp story really need this one on their reading lists. This is the perfect read for summer or the next best thing when summer feels like a distant memory.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.
Camp counselors talk to a couple of the kids (individually) about saving sex for marriage after they’re caught sneaking out to meet up at night. The talk is pretty vague, referring to sex as “the good stuff” and talking about how other kids might brag that they’re “doing stuff”, etc.

Spiritual Content
Poppi wrestles with feeling abandoned by God. She realizes through trying to save Camp Eden that she stopped believing God will take care of her and is trustworthy. Through her experiences at camp and her efforts to save Eden, she faces the root of those feelings—losing her mom—and begins to rebuild her trust in God.
Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Poppi’s dad is an alcoholic. She talks about this as a struggle for her personally in that she wants to invite him into her life but knows she has to have boundaries. For instance, she wants to invite him to camp but feels like he won’t be able to enjoy a visit without drinking, and that will present a lot of problems for everyone, so she doesn’t invite him.

Review: Tell Me Something Real by Calla Devlin

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Tell Me Something Real
Calla Devlin
Simon & Schuster / Atheneum

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Her mother’s cancer dominates Vanessa’s life. Alternative treatments in Mexico are the only hope for her mom, whose cancer is terminal. While Vanessa tries to anticipate her mother’s every need and keep her sisters (foul-mouthed Adrienne and saint-obsessed Marie) together, she also dreams of a day when she can pursue her own dreams. She pours out her grief in her music and counts the days until she’ll hear back from music schools about applications she’s secretly sent out.

Then two new members join Vanessa’s family group—a boy whose cancer is in remission and his overprotective mother. As Vanessa and Caleb begin to fall in love, a terrible betrayal rips her family apart. Vanessa and her sisters must sift the wreckage for the truth and discover how to heal.

I started reading this book feeling a little anxious about the whole betrayal aspect. It’s always a gamble, right? You don’t want the character you fall in love with to be the guy who suddenly turns out to be the villain. So it’s a risky thing to read a book where you know something like this will happen and it’s going to be REALLY BAD.

That said, I felt like Devlin handled the betrayal part with real care and power. I was shocked by what happened (I had a short list of things I imagined the betrayal might be, and it turned out to be none of the things on my list) and definitely identified with the girls as they scrambled to piece together their own feelings and care for one another. I liked all three of the sisters. Marie’s obsession with saints fascinated me, especially juxtaposed against her relationship with her mom.

I loved that there are honorable adults in the story. Not all of them are honorable, but as the girls endure this betrayal, it shakes their faith in who the good guys are and who they can trust, especially where adults are concerned. I liked that as I looked around at the cast of characters, there were respect-worthy role models there for the girls to fall back on. We all need that. We all need mentors who’ve gone before us who can encourage us to keep seeking the truth and moving forward. So that really resonated with me.

Just before this book I read One Paris Summer which also features a young talented pianist. It was interesting reading each character’s different reactions to the same composers (some I was familiar with and some I wasn’t) and why certain pieces were significant to them. Both girls found music to be a way to express their grief and strong feelings about the changes in their lives. They’re very different stories, but I felt like both did justice to the healing power of music.

This book is darker than One Paris Summer, but has some real thought-provoking ideas in it. See the content description below to decide whether this book is a good fit for you or your readers.

Cultural Elements

Vanessa and her sisters drive with their mother across the Mexican border to receive cancer treatment that’s illegal in the United States. A nurse named Lupe takes care of Vanessa’s mom, and a cook named Rico dotes on the girls. The major characters are white, middle-class Americans.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Vanessa states that Adrienne and her boyfriend have been sleeping together for a year. Vanessa herself is a virgin, but when she begins seeing her first boyfriend, she feels this might change. She exchanges kisses with him, and at one point he reaches under her shirt/bra. At one point Adrienne makes posters sexually denigrating to her ex-boyfriend.

Spiritual Content
Marie idolizes saints listed in a book. She quotes them and collects cards with the saints pictured on them. She especially loves the young virgin girls murdered for their strong faith, like Joan of Arc. At one point the family decides a Catholic school may be the best place for Marie because she’ll receive some understanding for her love of saints while also having the structure she desperately needs to survive the tumult at home.

Violent Content
Mild violence. Adrienne has some angry outbursts. One of the girls remembers her mother slapping a nurse and becoming agitated when a doctor tries to draw blood for tests.

Drug Content
Vanessa’s mother receives alternative treatment in Mexico considered by US doctors to be harmful, even toxic. Caleb believes the treatment is harmful and wants to discontinue it, but at seventeen, he doesn’t have the right to refuse treatment his mom requires him to have.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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