Laguna Cove by Alyson Noel

Book review #56

Laguna Cove by Alyson Noel

Rating: Three and a half stars

Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

Moving to sunny Southern Cal feels like punishment to 17-year-old Anne.  the hippie-ish school is different from her old one on the East Coast, and the social scene is all about hanging out at the beach and surfing.  And then there's Ellie: beautiful, competitive queen of the social scene who takes an instant disliking to Anne.  So when Chris--one of Ellie's oldest friends and, oh yeah, the most gorgeous guy in school--reaches out to Anne and offers to teach her how to surf, sparks fly...in more ways than one.

After reading such a heavy read earlier, Laguna Cove was just what I needed to lighten the mood. It was fast, enjoyable, and very fluffy. It was the perfect mindless read to take your mind of things. It felt nice to jump into the warm environment of  Laguna Cove. Although I did enjoy this one, I did have some issues about it.

Anne is being forced to move to luxury California to live with her dad. It sounds really great to most people, but not to Anne. Things were great back home, she had a great boyfriend, was number one of the dive team, and awesome friends. She begins to slowly adjust when she meets some friends and tries to learn how to surf. Things start getting way better when her and Chris connect. Now the only problems she has is dealing with stone cold Ellie and then of course her family issues on the side.

Laguna Cove was told through the point of views of four different girls. Usually I love when stories are told through different narrators. But I feel like it didn't really work in this case. Each girl had a LOT going on in their lives, and most of the things didn't connect. I feel like it would have been nicer if it was just focused on Anne and Ellie's point of views. Although saying that, the characters were pretty great. I didn't love them, but it was nice seeing such a diverse cast. There was Anne of course, who I definitely understood where she was coming from. Then there was Ellie. I saw her pain and her thirst for competition, I'm glad I got to see her side or else I wouldn't have understood her at all. The two other girls were Lola and Jade who both had their share of boy problems.

One of my favorite things about the book would be the fact that it was in a summer location, but it wasn't summer vacation. It was at  that time of year where school was just starting, which is creeping up pretty quickly for most of is. It was nice seeing school actually play a big part of the plot. The other thing I enjoyed was the role of surfing in the book. Who wouldn't love reading about the beach and waves? 

The last thing I had a problem with was the ending. It was very vague, but I could at least tell that things came together a bit too nicely.  Overall, I think this is a great summer read if you have some time to spare. It wasn't the best book in the world, but I definitely don't regret picking it up :)