Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols

Published: May 25, 2010 by Simon Pulse
Received: Bought from Barnes & Noble

Two irresistible boys. One unforgettable summer.

Lori can’t wait for her summer at the lake. She loves wakeboarding and hanging with her friends--including the two hotties next door. With the Vader brothers, she's always been just one of the guys. Now that she’s turning sixteen, she wants to be seen as one of the girls, especially in the eyes of Sean, the older brother. But that’s not going to happen--not if the younger brother, Adam, can help it.

Lori plans to make Sean jealous by spending time with Adam. Adam has plans of his own for Lori. As the air heats up, so does this love triangle. Will Lori’s romantic summer melt into one hot mess? {taken from goodreads.com}

The amazing Jennifer Echols' divulges a story about a girl, two brothers, and one HOT summer at the lake that I could not put down!

Lori has grown up next door to the Vader brothers, Sean and Adam her whole life.  Their summers consist of working at the Vader family marina during the day, wakeboarding in the late afternoon, and attending the famous Friday night parties at the Vader household.  For as long as Lori can remember she has been hopelessly in love with Sean.  But this summer is different.  She has a plan, and that plan consists of Lori strutting her womanly figure around in a bikini to grab Sean's attention and make him fall just as hard for her.  Little does Lori know, it's the attention of another Vader brother, Adam, that she's been capturing all these years.  As the plan unfolds, Lori realizes that everything she thought she loved about Sean may not be the truth.  Being in-love-crush is a tricky thing.  The heart likes to mask flaws that we don't always see and present to us a vision that is not necessarily the truth.

As the smoldering summer continues, so does Lori's desire to snag Sean.  And what better way to grab the guy of your dreams? Well make him jealous of course!  So when Lori comes up with the plan to steal Sean's heart by pretending to date Adam, she is in for a surprise of her own.  Jennifer Echols had set the stage for some steamy times between Sean and Lori, but it was the moments with Adam and Lori that set the pages on fire!  Even though their relationship is just a set-up, the emotion between these characters is far from fake and as the reader, you begin to wonder - when will Lori see what's right in front of her?  Adam is the carefree, spontaneous brother.  The one who acts first, then thinks later.  He is drawn to Lori because she is unlike any of the other girls.  Growing up around boys, she knows how to stand her own ground and be "one of the guys".  Yet Adam starts to see her girlish side too.  The side that makes his heart flutter and his stomach do flip flops.  Though he agreed to go along with Lori's plan to make Sean jealous, he knows his brother is not the guy for her - he is.  So Adam develops a plan of his own, to snag Lori for real.

I love summer romance books probably the most when it comes to YA lit.  So when I heard that one of my favorite authors had written a novel about just that, I knew I had to read it!  Jennifer Echols does not hesitate in the steamy factor.  I love her writing style when it comes to teenage love.  Young love is meant to be messy, complicated, weird, and above everything else.. sweet.  The relationship between Lori and Adam in this book was all of that and then some.  Aside from the characters, it was the setting that grabbed my attention as well.  After reading this book, I now want to live on a lake with total access to boats, wakeboards, boys, and plenty of sunshine year round.  Who wouldn't??!!  Visualizing the setting was so easy for me.  I could see Adam standing on that dock, pushing off with one foot, and throwing his body in to the boat with the other.  I could also see Lori trekking across the grassy lawn to the Vader house next door in her high heels, just hoping to grab the attention of a certain boy. 

Once again I am totally, & completely in love with a summer romance book.  Endless Summer is a bind up of Echols first novel titled, The Boys Next Door and then follows up with Endless Summer - the continuation of Lori and Adam's story.  Though it is meant to be two separate books, I read it straight through as one.  It all came to a head with a stream of fireworks and of course with me wanting more.  I always want more.  If you're itching for a swoon-worthy summer read, I HIGHLY recommend this one.  It is the perfect amount of fun and romance that is un-put-downable.