The Matchbreaker Summer by Annie Rains

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Publishing Date: April 5, 2022

Synopsis:

A pitch-perfect summer camp rom-com about two teens with nothing in common who come together to help break up a romance and unexpectedly start one of their own…

Sixteen-year-old Paisley Manning has been attending Camp Starling since she was a little girl, when her parents ran it together. For the last few years, since her father’s death, she’s been the one helping her mom run the camp behind the scenes. This year, however, will be Camp Starling’s last hurrah because Paisley’s mom has met a guy online and they’re getting married.

Enter Hayden Bennett, who is working alongside Paisley. Paisley and Hayden are like oil and water. She follows the rules, and he seems to live to break them all. But when Hayden catches wind of Paisley’s predicament, he has an idea. If a matchmaker in some computer algorithm caused the issue, a couple of real-life matchbreakers can fix it.

As they work to break up the happy couple, Paisley discovers that maybe Hayden’s not so bad after all. Has she met her own perfect match in her fellow matchbreaker?

Five out of Five Stars

This YA summer camp romance is saccharine sweet as Paisley struggles to make the most of her last summer at Camp Starling. Two different romances, one teen and one adult, are at the heart of this story, which brings everything you want in a camp romance: ridiculous camp traditions, camp counselor romances and daring water rescues.

Paisley’s parents built Camp Starling together, and every tradition is tied up in memories of her dad, who passed away a few years before. Now her mom is dating Dave, who struggles with everything outdoorsy and wants to move the family to his hometown in Wyoming. When Paisley learns that her mom plans to sell the camp and move to Wyoming, she feels like her world is falling apart.

Then she catches bad boy Hayden Bennett spray-painting dragons on the walls of the cabins, and as punishment, the adults make him serve as a counselor at Camp Starling. Paisley is livid until Hayden proposes a solution to all her troubles: he’ll help her break up her mom and Dave. But the closer she gets to Hayden, the more Paisley falls for him as she learns he’s struggling to deal with the death of a parent, too. And she begins to feel guilty for making things harder for perpetual nice guy Dave, especially after spreading honey in his sunblock gets him sent to the hospital due to an unknown bee allergy. Paisley must decide if she really wants to be the kind of person who bullies Dave out of her life.

Hayden’s relatable as the bad boy with a heart of gold who’s struggling to deal with his emotions in a healthy way. Paisley’s a good girl turning bad due to her struggles to deal with all the changes her mom and Dave are introducing into her life. Together, they balance each other out and bring a lightness to each other’s lives.

I also liked the discussion of best friendships through Paisley’s rocky friendship with Nora, which is experiencing growing pains as Nora tries to control who all her friends “like” and date, selecting the best matches for them herself. In Nora’s opinion, that’s in no way, shape or form Hayden, so she does her best to split up him and Paisley. The two girls have to learn what it really means to be best friends as they face new challenges.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and TBR & Beyond Tours for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.