Let's Talk: Summer Romances and Reads

Hey,

Welcome to another "Let's Talk!" post. Today I shall be talking about summer romances and some YA books that you may enjoy this summer if you are looking for some nice, fluffy romance stories. This will be a ramble type of post and is quite personal because I thought it would be a cute story to share with you, but also because I thought I'd make some of my posts a bit different. I hope you enjoy this new style I'm going to try out.

I've been thinking about what I did last summer during my long six-week holiday to come up with ideas of what I should do this summer and my mind stopped on a particularly pleasing memory of my time in Cherbourg, France. My family and I stayed at this amazing campsite for a little less than a week and it was right next to a beautiful beach.

I really wasn't expecting much from the few days we would be there. Chilling by the pool, going to the beach, visiting French supermarkets, you know? I even made sure I put boys and responsibilities at the bottom of my list of things I should be thinking about.

BUT...

Just like in those cheesy YA contemporary books you read and swoon over; a miracle happened. I was walking back from the pool and there were these two hot boys putting up tents next to my pitch.

Come on, when does this ever happen in real life? I was having a silent party in my head and smiling like a fool. This is until I overhear them speaking and realise something pretty big: they're French. They only speak French and no English. I honestly felt so disappointed because they seemed so lovely I just wanted to spark a conversation, but being the idiot I am, I didn't learn any French  and I didn't have any 3G to get much needed help from Google Translate. This meant that my vocabulary extended all the way to "Bonjour" and probably pronounced in the complete wrong way.

The following day, we were all hanging around in the pool when I met three other girls, one who was a few years older than me and could speak English. Let the heavens cry hallelujah! (I thought I would have to resort to the "if I speak slowly and loudly they might understand what I'm saying a bit better!" Don't lie, I bet you've done it at some point.) She helped introduce me to the other two girls who were both roughly my age, but also the boys. I'm not going to lie, I developed a crush on the second eldest who was just so charming honestly I couldn't not fall for him. I'll call him J for the sake of this post. He was confident, funny, and a real sweetheart. It was simply a bonus that he was my age.

Over the next few days, we all went to the beach together as a big group and they attempted to teach me French. We talked about films and the music that we were all familiar with and I really felt like I made friends for life in that moment. There was the language barrier, but we managed to understand each other in a way and enjoy the time that we shared together.

I stayed out late a few nights, one of the nights involved visiting the camp's bonfire. It just so happened that that was the last night of the trip. I had spent the days with these people and I knew the likelihood of me seeing them again would be pretty slim; saying good bye (or rather "au revoir") was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. I cried.. I think I was the only one who cried because I'm overly emotional and they probably thought I was crazy. J hugged me for a few hours while we sat by the campfire wiping the tears and kissing my cheek. The stars were glittering and the sparks from the bonfire were dancing into the night. There were people who had instruments and were singing gorgeous songs in French. This moment was so unbelievably perfect that I wish I could of recorded it to be able to relive over and over again.

We never kissed, but I do wish that it had happened. Sometimes I really regret not going for it and maybe he does too. We skyped for a few months afterward but eventually the fire just went out. He was in France. I was in England. And we barely knew each other's languages. Nevertheless, I don't regret our little thing we had going on at all and it was my first kinda summer romance and it was absolutely incredible. I hope that everyone can experience a summer romance one time in their life because it's an exhilarating and exciting experience. If you've had a short summer romance, I'm sure you know the feeling I'm talking about.

Of course, you don't have to experience a summer romance in real life, you can read about it and explore it in books. The books that I have gathered together not only consist of books with summer flings, but also cute and romantic YA books that will simply be perfect summer reads.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Saving June by Hannah Harrington

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger
This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Definitely check out these books this summer! They're light, fun and entertaining! If you enjoyed this post please let me know down in the comments and I shall try and do more.

Enjoy your week,
Sam

P.S If you've noticed the dodgy times on my camera, that's because I haven't set it properly because I'm lazy.