Skip to main content

ARC Review: Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian


32333296

Rating: 3 stars.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thank you!)

Stay Sweet is a book about ice cream, friendship and feminism. The main character Amelia is tasked this summer with keeping the town's famous ice cream stand open after tragedy strikes. She has to work with the owner's nephew, a cute college boy, and struggles to maintain her friendship with her best friend. 

What I really liked about this book was Amelia's emotional growth. She starts the book almost kind of whiny. Amelia doubts her ability to be a leader, doesn't think that she's very fun, and is wondering why she was chosen to be the manager of the ice cream stand. As the book progresses, Amelia discovers her passions and becomes more confident, which I really loved seeing. I also really liked the diary entries from the owner of the ice cream when she started making ice cream during WW2. I did feel like there was a point where there were too many, but I do really love the diary-from-the-past trope. The fact that the love interest is in college and is studying business was another element of this book that I enjoyed. (I'm in university and studying business so maybe I'm biased.) Stay Sweet has a bit of an entrepreneurial focus, in that you see all the work it takes to run a successful small business, which is something I have rarely seen in YA. 

What I didn't really like was the pace of this book. I found that it dragged in places, making it really easy for me to put down this book at times. I also found that Amelia's lack of self-confidence de-motivated me to read this book at times. 

If you're looking for a YA contemporary book with subtle feminist themes, you should definitely pick up Stay Sweet!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Favourite YA Historical Fiction Novels (as of August 2017)

I feel like Historical YA fiction is kind of an underrated genre. YA Dystopian novels used to be huge back in the Hunger Games craze and now YA Fantasy and YA contemporary Romances are popular. A lot of the Historical YA books can run a little young sometimes but here's some of my favourites.
Post a Comment
Read more

Audiobook Review: As I Descended by Robin Talley

Rating: 2.5 stars. As I Descended was a decent Macbeth retelling, if a bit too loose. As I Descended is about Maria, a girl who is competing for a scholarship against Delilah, who she believes doesn't deserve it. Maria's secret girlfriend, Lily, thinks so too and after they have a seance, the girls decide to take matters into their own hands and try to reveal the true nature of Delilah. But when murder results, they start to question whether it was a good idea. I really only liked this book because of the similarities to Macbeth. Even then, it's hard to like it because it was only loosely based on the play.  I picked up this audiobook because I heard great things about how diverse it was. I do have to agree that As I Descended did have quite a bit of diversity and did it well. I think my favourite character in this book was Matteo. I have no idea if he's supposed to resemble a character from the Shakespearean play, but I liked him the best; he was the most s...
Post a Comment
Read more