Woo hoo!! I'm extremely excited to be a part of Raincoast Books's Canadian blog tour for THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER! Some of you might already know that I am a HUGE fan of time travel...and I love contemporary YA romance, so this is an absolutely PERFECT fit! :D
Today I have my review and a little Q&A with the fabulous author of THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER, Harriet Rueter Hapgood! :D
THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMERSource: Received an ARC to participate in the blog tour and give an honest review. All opinions are my own.
by Harriet Rueter Hapgood
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Release Date: May 3, 2016
Number of Pages: 295 (Hardcover)
Description from Goodreads:
This is what it means to love someone. This is what it means to grieve someone. It's a little bit like a black hole. It's a little bit like infinity.
Gottie H. Oppenheimer is losing time. Literally. When the fabric of the universe around her seaside town begins to fray, she's hurtled through wormholes to her past:
To last summer, when her grandfather Grey died. To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn't even hold her hand at the funeral. To the day her best friend Thomas moved away and left her behind with a scar on her hand and a black hole in her memory.
Although Grey is still gone, Jason and Thomas are back, and Gottie's past, present, and future are about to collide—and someone's heart is about to be broken.
With time travel, quantum physics, and sweeping romance, The Square Root of Summer is an exponentially enthralling story about love, loss, and trying to figure it all out, from stunning debut YA voice, Harriet Reuter Hapgood.
About the Author
MY REVIEW:
I remember hearing about THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER months ago, and I was immediately intrigued! A contemporary romance...but with time travel. Super interesting! It's not often that contemporary and science fiction mix in that way without the sci-fi taking over, so I was extremely interested to see how the story was going to be handled, especially when you add in the fact that the main character, Gottie, is a math genius! Turns out that Harriet Reuter Hapgood handled it in a completely unique way, and once I started reading it, I couldn't stop!There are so many things to love about THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER, but for me one of the best parts was the fact that the story is so mult-faceted! Right from the description, it's clear that this story isn't just about first love, it's also about loss, heartbreak, falling in love again, and time travel, too...and once I started reading, I realized that while parts of it were definitely light-hearted and fun, it was also an incredibly introspective story. I do love light and fluffy contemporary romances, but I also love the stories that wrench your heart a little bit and make you appreciate the things in your life, and this story really does that.
When the book starts, Gottie is so detached from life and she's spent the last year not really processing or moving on. I loved seeing her begin to open up to the world, and to embrace life again. I'm a huge time travel fan, and I'm so used to people actively traveling through time or unintentionally lapsing into time and making irrevocable changes when they do, but this story wasn't quite like that. In fact, I wasn't really sure what to expect with the whole "time travel" aspect of this story since it is still mostly a contemporary story, but I still really enjoyed it. There was a whole hypothetical and theoretical side to time travel that was extremely unique, and Harriet Reuter Hapgood described it all in a super interesting way! You definitely won't learn how to time travel yourself after reading THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER, but you will love reading about Gottie's experiences with it!
I spent over three years working in a German deli, so I have to admit, all of the German elements to this story made me smile so freaking much...and they made me really nostalgic! I especially loved the little bit of German that slipped into the dialogue. :D Along with the time travel and German bits, I also really enjoyed the characters! While Gottie was pretty distracted with the whole weird time travel outbursts and wasn't always quite "in" the present, I really enjoyed her interactions with her family and friends when she was. I loved her dad, and the bits we saw of her grandpa, Grey, were so fantastic, too! I also loved her dynamics with her brother, even more so once she started to become less stuck in her past. Most of all, I really enjoyed seeing everything between her and Thomas though!!! Super duper cute and sweet...and I also loved her cat, Umlaut (hehe more German goodness! :D).
Overall, I absolutely adored THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER! I loved how the time travel aspects of the story complemented the contemporary parts, and I really loved Gottie's growth throughout the story. I'd recommend this one to contemporary romance fans, especially if you find the idea of time travel fascinating, too!
Q&A with Harriet
My Question: What inspired you to write a contemporary romance with time travel? And who's your favourite time traveler?
Harriet's Answer: I set myself a somewhat impossible task with my original goal for the book, which was to
write about a girl who’d already had her big YA coming of age summer the previous year,
and was now dealing with the aftermath. It meant a lot of the big storylines of the book
were in the past, and that got me to thinking about time travel and memory and revisiting
your past. Grief and mourning are exercises in memory and living in the past, so it all
came together as a time travelly whole. When I decided that the love story was going to
be someone from Gottie’s past, too, coming into her present, it all just made sense. At
least to me! I think once you’ve had your first love and your first heartbreak, you
begin to bring baggage from your past into every new crush, kiss, encounter,
relationship. We’re the sum of our past, for better or worse – really, doesn’t all
contemporary YA have some time travel in it? Just maybe not so literally… Time-travel
wise, I’m a fan of Back to the Future and The Time Traveller’s Wife.
What do you think?
Does THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER sound like your kind of story?
What did you think of Harriet's answer to my question?
And who else absolutely LOVES time travel?
What do you think?
Does THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER sound like your kind of story?
What did you think of Harriet's answer to my question?
And who else absolutely LOVES time travel?
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