There are no spoilers in this review.
Meet Me At Midnight, Jessica Pennington
Publishing on April 7th, 2020 by Tor Teen.
Buy Meet Me At Midnight on Amazon – Book Depository – Wordery – Indiebound.
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.
☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS: click here to see them.
ableist words used (crazy).
☂️ DIVERSITY: unspecified.
I ENJOYED…
☂️
- I love these kind of books that give me all the summery feels and Meet Me At Midnight really did. With its setting, set in twin lake houses, the lake, the swims and the late summer nights, it’s a perfect read if you’re looking to put a little sunshine in your days.
- Told in two different POV, we get to meet both Asher and Sydney as they meet each other again for the summer, are in for a last summer of epic pranks before college and… well, trying to survive each other for the very last time.
- I liked Sydney a lot: she was such a driven, organized and determined main character. She sometimes made me a little frustrated with her decisions, but I could understand where she came from.
- Asher was my favorite. He was so endearing and kind and sweet and I loved how he grew thorough the story, getting away from his father’s expectations for his life and future and carving his own path.
- The romance was one of my favorite parts of this book… obviously, it was the biggest part of it all. It’s a great enemies-to-lovers romance, with foundations in the past and a great built-up all over the course of the novel, just as well. I loved the characters’ chemistry and the development of their relationship, too. It had its miscommunications and its mistakes, but I rooted for them so, so much. And the banter, oh the banter was fantastic, making this such a thrilling, entertaining read.
I HAD A HARD TIME WITH…
☂️
- The book felt a little unevenly paced: I felt like the second half dragged a little more than the first one. The summery, lake setting really made me happy and, if seeing them setting off to college was a lovely addition to a young adult book, I felt like this second part was a little slower.
- I missed the secondary characters! I feel like some of them had potential, yet we didn’t get to know them so much and it made me a little sad.
OVERALL
☂️
If you enjoy summery, enemies-to-lovers kind of romances, you should fall in love with Meet Me At Midnight for sure! If I felt like the pacing was a little uneven in the second half of the story, I rooted for the main characters and their romance, their banter, chemistry and epic pranks making this an entertaining read overall. Fans of ya contemporary romances, I recommend it. I’ll certainly check out more books by Jessica Pennington sometime!
Final rating: 3,5 drops!
A million thanks to Tor Teen & NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book. This did not, in any way, influence my thoughts and rating.
Did you read Meet Me At Midnight? Do you want to?
Do you have any recommendations of enemies-to-lovers romances? Let me know in comments!
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Great review! These are more like hate to love romance- Love to Prove You Wrong (Old Pine Cove, #2) by Sophie-Leigh Robbins, The Break Up by Tilly Tennant. I highly recommend The Break Up.
Thank you so much!! Ohh thank you for the recommendations, I’ll have to check these out 🙂
I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this book before, it sounds like a fun and fluffy contemporary- which is something I really need with all the situation going on. Thank you for putting this book on my radar, lovely review Marie!
Ahh I’m so glad to hear this! This book is PERFECT for that, really, it was a lot of fun to read. I hope you’ll enjoy it, Tasya. <3 <3
Sending you all the love x
I loved reading your review!! Even reading your review gave me all the summery vibes and I would love to be at a lake house at the minute!! Yep I definitely need to go to one and I love the mood board you created!!
The characters sound so fun too and the romance, I LOVE banter.
This was great review as I definitely got an idea about what I would get from the book!! I know the mood I would have to be to pick this up!! Thank you for sharing !! <3
Ahhh thank you, Sophie! This makes me so, so happy <3 I hope you'll give this book a try as soon as you can, it was so much fun to read 🙂
I was excited until you said the pace thing. I don’t know that I could handle that. I’m glad there were a lot of great things about this book, though!
Oh! I can understand that. If it helps, I feel like it was maybe about 30% of the book that felt a little slower (the last part!) 🙂 I hope you’ll feel like giving it a try sometime 🙂
This actually sounds super adorable! I don’t mind the hate-to-love romance, as long as it’s done right. From what you’ve said in your review, it’s a good illustrating of that trope! I also love stories where the characters have a lot of chemistry and backstory — it makes it feel more wholesome. Honestly, I really need a summer/light read right now — so I might need to pick this up. ADDING TO GOODREADS! Lovely review, darlin’! <3
It really was an adorable read, if you love a good chemistry between characters, you should love that one 🙂 I hope you will!! 🙂 Thank you, Jenna! <3
An enemies to lovers romance?? Hmmm I think I would have a lot of similar thoughts like you and be frustrated with the pacing but also want more of action and romance! I think this would be a good book for me to pick up over the summer potentially, and I’m definitely very interested bc of the YA contemporary ~feels~ ?
Ahhh, yes! I hope you’ll pick it up sometime, Tiffany, it is such a fun contemporary overall and I think you’d like it a lot 😀
This sounds like a cute summer read! The odd pacing and lack of secondary character development is a bit disappointing but it sounds like a good time, still. Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes so I might have to add this to my summer reading list 😀 Great review!
It still was a very entertaining read overall and if enemies to lovers is your favorite trope, I definitely recommend it 😀
Thank you so much! <3
Great review! I loved this one, so I’m glad you enjoyed a lot of it.
Thank you! I’m so happy you liked it as well 🙂
You’re welcome!
This sounds like a book I would love! I love those Summer-vibes in books, especially now that Spring is coming and you can feel Summer getting closer 🙂 Great review!
Ahhhh yes! I hope you’ll pick it up as soon as you can 🙂
Thank you so much! <3
Ahhh I need a summer book right now because I’m freezing.?? It was gorgeous this past week and I’ve been spoiled.
I get the feeling haha 🙂 I hope you’ll pick it up and will love it 😀
I think I agree with you about the secondary characters. There were some, who I really liked meeting, and would have enjoyed getting to know them better. I did like this book, though, and Asher was definitely a big part of that. All those little gestures of love he did for Sydney made my heart melt. I loved the ending too, and a strong ending goes a long way with me.
Ahh I’m glad you agree! 🙂
Yes, this book was overall still lovely, Asher was definitely my favorite <3
the aesthetics you always create for your reviews are SO lovely and make me want to read the books even more!!! the summery vibes in Meet Me At Midnight sound so special, it really seems like a fun contemporary romance. 😉 loved reading your review, hope you’re doing well! <3
Oh this is the best compliment, thank you so much ahh <3 it was such a fun contemporary, I hope you'll give it a try <3
Thank you!! <3
I’m looking forward to this book! I’m glad you overall enjoyed it despite having issues with the pace. Great review!
I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. Despite its little flaws, it was such an entertaining read 🙂
this seems like a book I would like! i really like the enemy to more vibes in a book. I’m sad to hear that the secondary characters weren’t everything you wanted. I love when they’re a secondary character that you absolutely love and just really feel like you know them almost as much as the main characters! Great post, definitely going to give this a read. Now that I’ve been spending a lot of time at home, I’ve been reading tons of books from my TBR list! Feels good to make my list a little smaller. While I continue to make my list smaller, you’re always recommending me amazing books to keep adding! What a great problem to have haha. Great post marie xxx
Melina | http://www.melinaelisa.com
AH YAY I’m glad to hear that, I hope you’ll give this book a try sometime 🙂
I get that, it’s nice to finally tackle that gigantic TBR and get lots of reading done!
Thank you so much, Melina! Take care of yourself <3
I definitely need to read this one. Enemies to lovers, good banter & epic pranks sounds like a wonderful combination!!
Ahhh yay, I hope you will 😀
Oh wow, the summer setting in this book sounds so lovely! I am in love with the enemies-to-lovers trope & different POVs. I cannot wait to dig into it! Thanks for your review, Marie. ♡
It was really lovely! I hope you’ll have a great time reading it 😀