Review: Summer Nights and Meteorites
Summer Nights and Meteorite
by Hannah Reynolds
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2024
Category: Young Adult
Reviewer: Melissa Lasher
Buy at Bookshop.org
Summer Nights and Meteorites is Reynolds’ third standalone YA romcom. Each revolves around a different will-they-won’t-they romance, and they’re all set at the sprawling Nantucket family home owned by the old-money, sharp-witted Sephardic Barbanel family. What a joy it was to be back in Hannah Reynolds’ Nantucket, with its vast blue seas, rambling gardens, and—mezuzahs. Or at least one modest mezuzah on the not-at-all-modest Golden Doors mansion.
Our heroine is a less-moneyed and serially unlucky-in-love summer visitor, Jordan Edelman. Jordan’s vibe is very Magic Shell on the outside, melty ice cream on the inside. She fumes with an ocean’s worth of resentment for how much time her single dad spends with his summer research assistant, the mysterious Ethan Barbanel. She’s furious about spending her last summer before college on Nantucket away from her friends. Yet, she sweetly hopes her dad will spend more time with her if only she could stop getting her heart broken. Jordan’s solution: swearing off boys.
Lucky for us, Jordan doesn’t even last a chapter: on the ferry to Nantucket, she hooks up with some random guy who turns out to be…Ethan Barbanel. Awkward? Indeed. Even more cringe: Jordan’s loveably geeky dad has arranged for her to stay at Golden Doors where she, swoony Ethan, and a gaggle of Barbanel cousins share a hallway, a bathroom, and cooking duty. (Warning: you will crave pancakes, hummus, and all manner of tangy salads while reading Summer Nights).
Layers of science and mystery elevate this flirty book to more than a beach read. Jordan’s internship with a female astronomer gives her something to focus on beyond trying to ignore her chemistry with Ethan. The latter would be a great deal easier if he were more the wealthy jerk she envisioned before the summer and less the tall, dark, and brainy weirdo he reveals himself to be during their daily morning ocean swims. When Ethan helps Jordan prove that a female astronomer discovered the comet that will soar over Nantucket that summer, she rethinks her boy ban. Slowly and then all at once, her ferry hookup seems less like an impulsive mistake and more like the best decision she ever made.
Reynolds’ mostly closed-door romcom will appeal to anyone who enjoys the genre, and especially to readers looking for a sweet romance with Jewish markers. Jewish life forms the scaffolding for Summer Nights but doesn’t impact the main plot. Still, the Jewish layer has just enough substance to nudge this book into the running for a Sydney Taylor Book Award. An invitation to Shabbat at Golden Doors elicits anxiety for Jordan, whose exposure to Jewish customs and terms and the Hebrew language mostly ended with her mom’s death. This angle—of being a Jew and an outsider— is a refreshing shift from the all-or-nothing observance common in novels. Especially since Summer Nights and Meteorites puts the idea of not being Jewish enough to bed.
Summer Nights and Meteorites is Reynolds’ third standalone YA romcom. Each revolves around a different will-they-won’t-they romance, and they’re all set at the sprawling Nantucket family home owned by the old-money, sharp-witted Sephardic Barbanel family. What a joy it was to be back in Hannah Reynolds’ Nantucket, with its vast blue seas, rambling gardens, and—mezuzahs. Or at least one modest mezuzah on the not-at-all-modest Golden Doors mansion.
Our heroine is a less-moneyed and serially unlucky-in-love summer visitor, Jordan Edelman. Jordan’s vibe is very Magic Shell on the outside, melty ice cream on the inside. She fumes with an ocean’s worth of resentment for how much time her single dad spends with his summer research assistant, the mysterious Ethan Barbanel. She’s furious about spending her last summer before college on Nantucket away from her friends. Yet, she sweetly hopes her dad will spend more time with her if only she could stop getting her heart broken. Jordan’s solution: swearing off boys.
Lucky for us, Jordan doesn’t even last a chapter: on the ferry to Nantucket, she hooks up with some random guy who turns out to be…Ethan Barbanel. Awkward? Indeed. Even more cringe: Jordan’s loveably geeky dad has arranged for her to stay at Golden Doors where she, swoony Ethan, and a gaggle of Barbanel cousins share a hallway, a bathroom, and cooking duty. (Warning: you will crave pancakes, hummus, and all manner of tangy salads while reading Summer Nights).
Layers of science and mystery elevate this flirty book to more than a beach read. Jordan’s internship with a female astronomer gives her something to focus on beyond trying to ignore her chemistry with Ethan. The latter would be a great deal easier if he were more the wealthy jerk she envisioned before the summer and less the tall, dark, and brainy weirdo he reveals himself to be during their daily morning ocean swims. When Ethan helps Jordan prove that a female astronomer discovered the comet that will soar over Nantucket that summer, she rethinks her boy ban. Slowly and then all at once, her ferry hookup seems less like an impulsive mistake and more like the best decision she ever made.
Reynolds’ mostly closed-door romcom will appeal to anyone who enjoys the genre, and especially to readers looking for a sweet romance with Jewish markers. Jewish life forms the scaffolding for Summer Nights but doesn’t impact the main plot. Still, the Jewish layer has just enough substance to nudge this book into the running for a Sydney Taylor Book Award. An invitation to Shabbat at Golden Doors elicits anxiety for Jordan, whose exposure to Jewish customs and terms and the Hebrew language mostly ended with her mom’s death. This angle—of being a Jew and an outsider— is a refreshing shift from the all-or-nothing observance common in novels. Especially since Summer Nights and Meteorites puts the idea of not being Jewish enough to bed.
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