Book Review: The Season of You & Me by Robin Constantine

The Season of You & Me by Robin Constantine

Pages: 352
Publish date: May 10, 2016
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
ISBN: 9780062438843
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU – QBD

Cassidy Emmerich is determined to make this summer—the last before her boyfriend heads off to college—unforgettable. What she doesn’t count on is her boyfriend breaking up with her. Now, instead of being poolside with him, Cass is over a hundred miles away, spending the summer with her estranged father and his family at their bed-and-breakfast at the Jersey Shore and working as the newest counselor at Camp Manatee.

Bryan Lakewood is sick of nevers. You’ll never walk. You’ll never surf and you’ll never slow dance with your date at prom. One miscalculated step and Bryan’s life changed forever—now he’s paralyzed and needs to use a wheelchair. This is the first summer he’s back at his former position at Camp Manatee and ready to reclaim some of his independence, in spite of those who question if he’s up for the job.

Cass is expecting two months dealing with heartbreak.
Bryan is expecting a summer of tough adjustments.
Neither of them is expecting to fall in love.

The Season of You & Me:

I’ve wanted to read The Season of You & Me since it came out. It features a recently disabled character and it’s a fun summer romance. What’s not for me to like? It took me ages to pick it up as the paperback wasn’t published until recently, but I finally did and gosh did I love it.

The Season of You & Me follows protagonists Cassidy and Bryan two people who have been hurt in different ways but find each other in this summer romance. Cassidy has had her heart broke, torn apart and when she has the opportunity to spend the summer with her father, she takes the chance. Bryan will never walk again. And it’s hurting, he will never walk, he will never surf. And that is hard to live with. When they both begin to work at Camp Manatee, things change. But can they both risk their already fractured hearts?

I adored Cassidy in The Season of You & Me. She is definitely a flawed character, but that is what makes her such a great YA protagonist. After her boyfriend cheated on her, Cass felt like she needs to get away. So instead of spending a couple of weeks with her father, she wants to spend the whole summer there. Cass has many doubts about staying with her father for such a long time, and it was nice to see that yes she loved him and his family, but it was hard to be there. It was hard to see Cass struggle with herself and who she is. She feels humiliated and hurt all at the same time. So this summer was a real experience for her.

And then Cass meets Bryan and at first his a new friend, but slowly as they spend more and more time together it turns into something more. It was nice to see Cass find not only herself but Bryan, new friends, and family in a place that she thought she would never call home.

Ahh, Bryan. My heart breaks but is also filled with warmth with I think about him. His life has changed forever. Bryan has gone from surfing and hanging out at the skate park to being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. At the start of The Season of You & Me Bryan is trying to come to terms that he is paralysed, he feels lost with who he is, but like Cass, he finds himself as the novel goes on. Bryan has a lot of support but doesn’t necessarily believe he does, until Cass.

The romance in The Season of You & Me was perfect. It’s that nice balance of slowly building a friendship and then turning into something more. Cass and Bryan were very careful with each other at first, for different by understandable reasons. But as the novel went on the reader is able to see them slowly fall for each other. They slowly start to trust each other and come together. And gosh they were adorable together. And one of the main reason why I loved Cass and Bryan together; they didn’t say ‘I love you’.

Family was a major theme of The Season of You & Me and it was really nice to see. There were many different dynamics, but it all seemed to work. In YA you normally only see one good family, but both Bryan’s and Cass’ were great. Bryan’s are still struggling with their life-changing, but they all worked together. They care and love for one another and that was great to see. Cass’ family was just so great. I adored her half-brother, so much. You could see through The Season of You & Me that he adored Cass and wanted her to love him and care for him. Both Cass’ mum and her father and step-mum were also fantastic.

Friendship was another massive theme in The Season of You & Me. We see Cass make new friends, Bryan has a deeper relationship with his. And it all comes together.

Disability played a major part in The Season of You & Me and from what I can tell it was done really well. It’s been a little bit since Bryan landed himself in a wheelchair, but he is still struggling with life. And that is totally understandable. The reader is able to see that his life isn’t the same and that is hard to get on with. But one of the positives spins that the author did be Bryan has it #wheelchairperks. It was a theme throughout the novel where Byran would note something as a #wheelchairperk and it was cool to see it presented as that. As normally something being in a wheelchair was a bad and horrible thing.

Overall, I loved The Season of You & Me. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that really pulls at your heart. The Season of You & Me explores family, friendship and finding yourself. It’s a fantastic coming of age novel that explores disability, love and being okay with who you are. Cass and Bryan and beautiful characters on their own, but when they come together they light up the page.