Book Review: Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

Title: Stay Sweet

Author: Siobhan Vivian

Release Date: April 24, 2018

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Pages: 368
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Age Group: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

        

A summer read about first love, feminism, and ice cream. Summer in Sand Lake isn’t complete without a trip to Meade Creamery—the local ice cream stand founded in 1944 by Molly Meade who started making ice cream to cheer up her lovesick girlfriends while all the boys were away at war. Since then, the stand has been owned and managed exclusively by local girls, who inevitably become the best of friends. Seventeen-year-old Amelia and her best friend Cate have worked at the stand every summer for the past three years, and Amelia is “Head Girl” at the stand this summer. When Molly passes away before Amelia even has her first day in charge, Amelia isn’t sure that the stand can go on. That is, until Molly’s grandnephew Grady arrives and asks Amelia to stay on to help continue the business…but Grady’s got some changes in mind…

 

I was really looking forward to this one - I'm such a sucker for summer reads - but unfortunately, this one didn't quite hit the mark with me. 

I'll start out with the things I enjoyed. I love that Meade Creamery has a history that stems all the way back to WWII. It made me nostalgic for the past, and I can imagine, just like the main character Amelia does, that it was a time where etiquette towards one another was a way of life, where you had to make due because war called away so many men, and shortages of food and materials existed, prompting ingenuity. Women, in a lot of ways had to stand up and take charge. Which is exactly what Molly Meade did, so she'd have something to focus on while her fiancee was away. And to her astonishment, she comes up with and perfects 4 flavors of ice cream, including Home Sweet Home, that people can't get enough of. This type of courageous passion and vision is inspiring and will certainly be for young readers.

Working at the Meade Creamery stand is an honor and a privilege. But this summer starts a little  differently for Amelia, who is supposed to be "Head Girl" this year, which means she'll be in charge. Except instead, and to her shock, she finds Molly dead and sprawled on the floor of the stand. (I'm not giving anything away as this happens right at the beginning and is in the synopsis). What comes after, is what really made this just an okay read for me.

Molly's grandnephew, Grady, learns that he has inherited the ice cream stand, although he's never been involved before. This really throws everything out of whack and what I thought would be a story about friendships and fun between the ladies who worked the stand, ultimately just became a quest for Amelia to help Grady keep the stand running, at all costs. Amelia really is a pushover, to the detriment of her role as "Head Girl" and her friendship with her best friend Cate. It made me a little bit angry as the story went on and probably why I didn't like Grady very much. And since this is a contemporary read where romance is a staple, Amelia and Grady develop a summer romance but I didn't feel invested in the slightest. 

I really wish I would have liked this one more but I definitely believe some books are "it's me, not you" and I always encourage others to read books even if it didn't particularly resonate with me. That's what makes the love of reading so fantastic!

As always, happy reading!