Books for Christian Girls: "Just for the Summer" by Melody Carlson

About this book:

  “Ginny Masters manages a popular boutique hotel in Seattle and manages it with aplomb. But the daily challenges and irritations of a fast-paced job and a demanding boss are starting to get to her. Jacqueline Potter manages her grandfather's fishing lodge in Idaho because it was the only job she could find after graduating with her hospitality degree. She's grateful for the work but longs for a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan life she's just not going to find in this backwoods town.
   The solution to both their problems seems obvious. Just for the summer, they'll swap jobs and lifestyles. But they never anticipated swapping love interests . . .”

Series: As of now, no. It seems to be a stand-alone novel.

Spiritual Content- A Scripture is remembered & thought over; We see that Ginny has a faith, but no hints to Jacqueline having one (besides a mention of her sending a prayer for a new job); Ginny knows that she loves God and God loves her, but longs for being able to love and be loved in a human form as well; Mentions of God & His will; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of churches, church going; A mention of purgatory;
             *Note: The words ‘miracle’ and ‘heaven’ are used loosely (wanting a miracle for a job-related thing and thinking a place is heaven); The phrase “when hell freezes over” is said once; A mention of Jacqueline being almost “worshipful” to a new boss to get on her good side; Jacqueline teasingly calls Ginny a “saint”; Mentions of luck, being lucky, & lucky stars; A few mentions of magic & someone being a magician (not seriously); A mention of someone who has passed “looking down” with approval over someone; A mention of a child wondering if a place is haunted.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘doggone’, a ‘give a hill of beans’, an ‘idiot’, a ‘shoot’, a ‘shut up’, a ‘stinking’, a ‘ticked’, a ‘witch’ (calling a woman that), a ‘what the devil’, two ‘dad-burned’s, two ‘good grief’s, two ‘hurts like the dickens’, three ‘crummy’s, three forms of ‘dang’, four forms of ‘darn’, and five forms of ‘stupid’; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Drinking (with others, both Ginny and Jacqueline; Jacqueline plans to win a guy over with acting helpless and alcoholic beverages); Ginny’s boss manipulates her at work; Jacqueline lies, manipulates, looks to blame others for her mistakes, and has a bad attitude about working at her grandfather’s place (complaining, avoiding responsibilities, not being helpful; It’s said she has an “entitled superiority complex going on”); *Spoiler* Jacqueline feels like she is unwanted and unloved after seeing Ginny take over her job when she wants it back; This causes her to lie more to get rid of Ginny and have a certain man’s interest again; She has an outburst about no one liking her *End of Spoiler*; Ginny tells a lie (not being truthful about her feelings); A father makes his teen daughter tell a lie “for a good reason” (to be able to be alone with a woman); A teenager makes comments about not being happy in her family, yells at her mom, talks about being emancipated from her parents, & is hurt and bitter from her parents’ divorce; Mentions of a young son drowning & the possibility of others drowning (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of deaths from cancer (a mother and a wife, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of injuries, pain, & a broken bone; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, & bars; Mentions of an out-of-control party; Mentions of throwing up; Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & manipulation; Mentions of fathers leaving their families, divorces, & the daughter of a divorced couple being upset (due to her mom “dumping her” on her father); A few mentions of jealousy & hatred; A few mentions of rumors; A couple mentions of a war; A couple mentions of a wife loving her husband’s money and family name more than him; A mention of death row; A mention of an abduction; A mention of thieves; A mention of arrests; A mention of a teenager “pranking” her stepfather by keying his car; A mention of a fire; A mention of cigarettes; A mention of a nightmare; A mention of hunting;
             *Note: A man makes comments against cancer doctors due to losing his wife to cancer & hating doctors and medicine because of it; Both Jacqueline & Diana mention their therapists & what they’ve been told (such as Jacqueline being told that she overcompensates with guys because her father left her when she was little); Mentions of brand names, items, & stores (Keds, Carhartt, Ralph Lauren, Coco Chanel, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, T-Mobile, Jell-O, iPad, Safeway, & Goodwill); Mentions of authors (Stephen King & John Grisham); Mentions of Disneyland; Mentions of a baseball team; A couple mentions of anxiety; A mention of PTSD (Ginny being concerned over fish who were released after getting caught would have PTSD); A couple mentions of celebrities (Chris Hemsworth & Margot Robbie); A couple mentions of a song (‘The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night’); A couple mentions of car brands; A mention of Google; A mention of the Oscars; A mention of a magazine (Glamour).

Sexual Content- An almost kiss, a not-detailed kiss, and two barely-above-not-detailed kisses; Touches & Embraces (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing (up to semi-detailed); Jacqueline enjoys receiving attention from male guests & purposely dresses to get guys’ attention (including showing off her legs and waist); a ‘hunky’; Many mentions of dates, dating, secretly dating behind someone’s back, girlfriends/boyfriends, exes, & broken hearts; A few mentions of a kiss (that Jacqueline initiated with a guy); A few mentions of a bachelorette party (with a man there as well); A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of flirting; A bit of love, falling in love, & the emotions.

-Genevieve “Ginny” Masters, age 37
-Jacqueline Potter, age 27
                                P.O.V. switches between them
                                                        288 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

Funny thing, this book felt like a throwback for me. Melody Carlson was one of the first (if not the very first) author I read when I got into Christian Fiction 13+ years ago and I really enjoyed her contemporary, usually drama-filled books. That’s not to say that I liked every book (or would recommend them now, I’d have to reread most of them), but this book definitely reminded me of that style. I probably would have enjoyed it much more when I was in the 13-15 age range (as this is the style of books I enjoyed then), but wasn’t fully my cup of tea now in my mid-twenties.

I liked Ginny, but I found Jacqueline to be insufferable, so I was holding out hope for her character development. I forgot how well this author writes shallow, superficial, self-centered characters who only care about themselves and designer brands. (This author does it very well were you want to smack some sense into her.) Brace yourself. If you like drama, have at it, but brace yourself for that girl. The change does happen but it happens very fast towards the end, which was a little disappointing. I would’ve like to see it more gradually, but it was good to see the change regardless.

Ginny has a faith that we see some of, but Jacqueline doesn’t show anything expect a prayer once for something good to happen to her. Both of the potential love interests have no faiths shown or discussed which made me wonder why Ginny was interested in either of them. To be fair, she was really only interested in one and the other just followed her around, but still, it was strange to see no faith discussions or confirmations before they started falling for the other. It felt more like a clean fiction book in that regard.

While I enjoyed parts of this book and it was a distraction for a few hours, I wouldn’t call it spectacular by any means. Jacqueline was pretty frustrating, the ending was rushed, the faith content was light, and there was casual drinking by main characters. It’s an overall very clean and summer-y read, but not one I’ll be recommending often nor thinking about much.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!