Review: Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Release Date: May 13, 2014
# of Pages: 256
Synopsis:  A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers. Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward Pete's nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of a classic, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up--and the troubled beauty trapped between them.



My Review:

I received Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel from Around The World ARC Tours and this is my honest review. 

Second Star is a standalone novel about a girl named Wendy, who has just graduated high school and is trying to keep her life together even though the disappearance of her twin brothers John and Michael is tearing it to shreds. One night after graduation Wendy finds herself being rescued from the water by Pete, a mysterious surfer that she suddenly feels drawn to. Not knowing whether she is drawn to him because of her brothers or because he is a cute guy she decides to track him down in hopes that him and his “family” will help her find her brothers.

From the beginning of the book until the end I loved Pete's character. There were a couple of times my trust for him wavered but he never really did anything that really made me hate him, which was hard especially when Jas came into the picture. Jas is the bad boy that lives across the beach from Pete. Him and Pete used to be good friends until Jas started dealing drugs and now they are enemies. I can’t exactly tell you why Jas became such an important part in the story because it involves spoilers but boy does he. 

The other characters in the book were great too. I loved the other guys Hughie, and Matt, they lived with Pete and they were really open with Wendy even when she was some stranger invading their territory. The only character in the whole book that got on my nerves enough to not want to read about them anymore was Belle. I mean I understand that she was upset because her boyfriend broke up with her and Wendy was suddenly in his life but they way she went about some things was just wrong and it made me hate her. The other characters that angered me a little were Fiona which was Wendy's best friends and then Wendy's parents, and they only reason why I say this is because they absolutely would not believe her no matter what she said they just thought she was crazy and sure maybe she was but it does not matter you are supposed to be there for your loved ones not ignore them the way they did. 

Other than that there was only one thing that really annoyed me about this book, and again I can’t really say what because it will give off spoilers but a good portion of the book was Wendy discovering Kensington and then with what happened at the end it was just confusing which annoyed me because I had no clue what was real and what was not. So near the end the author did not do a good job distinguishing between real and fake, but the rest of the book was good enough for me to want to read more of her books.