Review: My Epic Spring Break (Up) by Kristin Rockaway

This book is a fun, coming-of-age story revolving around the friends-to-lovers trope.

My Epic Spring Break (Up) is a contemporary novel about a girl experiencing love for the first time. The plot is simple: Ashley, a coding prodigy, thinks that she has her future planned out with the end goal of working in Silicon Valley as a software engineer. When Ashley’s future plans confront an obstacle, she decides to live more adventurously, leading her down the road of having a very eventful Spring Break.

The book is easy to read and the fast pacing conveys the sudden changes in Ashley’s life. I could see a younger YA audience between ages 12-14 especially enjoying it. To me, it was evident that the characters portrayed classic stereotypes: the nerd, the prankster, the popular girl and the troublemaker. The most entertaining character was the prankster Jason, Ashley’s childhood friend. A key characteristic to this book is the references to Taylor Swift songs as they complement moments that happen to Ashley and describe her feelings. This adds a soundtrack to the book which I thought was a nice addition. I believe this book would be an amazing introduction for young readers into contemporary YA!

Eimear Feeney, teen reviewer