This is the second three-book volume in the series which includes books 4-6. I'm going to do a separate review for each book like I did for the first volume.
Book #4: Surprise Endings
Book Synopsis:
Cheerleading tryouts are coming up, and Christy Miller is giving it all she's got. The competition is tough and some of the girls are just rude, but Christy thinks she has a good chance to make the squad. Meanwhile prom is just around the corner, and Christy hopes her parents will make an exception to their "no dating until sixteen" rule. She'd love to go with Todd to his prom! But nothing turns out as Christy had planned. As the surprises keep coming, can Christy respond with grace...and maybe even spring a surprise of her own?
My Review:
3.75/5 stars. So far, this book is my least favorite of the series. It wasn't bad, by any means, but this one was just a little boring and not as fun or interesting to read.
The main thing that was a letdown was Christy. She was really annoying in this book. She was super angsty and overreacted about all the relationship drama. Her jealousy with Todd frustrated me and I thought she was way too dramatic when she found out he was going to prom with a different girl. This one moment happened and she suddenly felt like Todd had never cared about her and never would, and she spent a lot of the book sulking. It was very relieving at the end when she realized how ridiculous she had been acting and turns back to God after spending a lot of the book ignoring Him.
This book's plot was also not as interesting or exciting as the ones in the previous volume. It was pretty much focused on just two main problems: prom and cheerleading tryouts. Christy standing up to the mean girl on the cheerleading team just felt like a cliché high school storyline. It was also pretty predictable. I figured out that Christy was going to give up her spot on the team as soon as she started feeling bad for Teri. You'd think a book called Surprise Endings would have more of an actually surprising ending.
I didn't like Rick in this book. That's not a complaint about the book, just the character. He was very hot-and-cold with Christy. There would be times when he was super nice and encouraging, but then other times he would act super immature and rude, especially about the prom situation. Towards the end, when he was telling Christy that she was "his kind of girl" now that she was a cheerleader, made me mad. I was so happy when Christy called him out on it and told him she didn't want to be with him unless he changed, it was very satisfying.
I related to some of the things in this book, mainly the fact that Christy helps out with the toddler class at her church. At my church, I also am a youth helper for the children's church class for the little kids, so I could easily picture and imagine the scenes with the kids and Christy's interactions with them.
Book #5: Island Dreamer
Book Synopsis:
Christy Miller is spending her sixteenth birthday on Maui with her family, Todd, and Paula, her best friend from Wisconsin! What could be better? But Christy soon finds that she and Paula don't have as much in common anymore. Paula's obsessed with having a boyfriend...even if it means stealing Todd from Christy! Will he choose Paula over her? Or will the islands send Christy dreaming in new directions?
My Review:
5/5 stars. This book was much better than the last one. I don't know if it's my favorite so far, but it was definitely good. I loved the setting. The way everything was described made it sound so pretty and made me kind of want to go to Hawaii to experience it myself.
I really related to Christy a lot in this book with all her internal struggles. I know what's like to want to witness to a friend about God and wanting them to become a Christian, but not wanting to seem too self-righteous or like you're "forcing religion on them". I know there are a lot of people out there like Christy's friend, Paula, that just don't want to hear anything about the subject.
On a similar note, another very relatable part was Christy feeling like she and Paula had nothing in common now that they were older. I understand that feeling of drifting away from a childhood friend because you change in different ways and suddenly don't really get along anymore. She still wanted to be friends with her because they were such good friends as kids, but at the same time, knew that they disagreed on a lot of things as teenagers.
Speaking of Paula, I really didn't like her in this book. I didn't really have much of an opinion on her before this book because she was barely even mentioned in the previous ones, but she bothered me. Her whole attitude of wanting to lose her virginity and her belief that "if a guy really likes you, he'll be more aggressive" and "you can tell how much a guy likes you by how much he goes after you" was very annoying because it's terrible advice. Also, she spent the whole book flirting with Todd and even outright admitted it to Christy. I'm not sure how I feel about her and Christy making up at the end despite that, I'm interested to see what happens with her character in the later books.
This book had a lot of great stuff about dating and pursuing relationships in a Godly way. I liked Christy's conversation with Todd about what they think about flirting and everything. I really agree with Christy that a guy should give some indication that he's interested by holding her hand or other little sweet things like that, and that that doesn't mean he wants to make out with her.
I also like that God's timing is a big part of this book and that sometimes the person you like isn't necessarily the right person for you, you have to wait for God to put the right person in your life and trust that He knows best. Even though I know that Christy and Todd end up together, so her thoughts about if he's really the right guy for her don't mean much, it's still a very true and good thought.
One thing I thought was a little weird and I'm not sure how I feel about, is when Christy writes a letter to her future husband. She talked about how she's waiting until marriage - that part's obviously good - but she describes herself as a "present" to be "unwrapped" by him. It's a weird analogy in my opinion.
Finally, there wasn't too much action in this book, but the chapters with Todd, Christy, Paula, and David going to the waterfalls and everything that happened there was good. There was a little bit of suspense with Todd getting stung and then Christy having to get over her fear of driving, and I liked it.
Book #7: A Heart Full of Hope
Book Synopsis:
Christy Miller is sixteen, and that means she can finally date! Rick has waited months for this, and he has a whole list of dates planned. He's not happy about her early curfews and weekend job, but Christy knows her parents aren't about to negotiate on those points. Really, she's dazzled to be pursued by such a thoughtful guy. So why does she feel overwhelmed? Where does Todd fit into her life now? And can any guy really fulfill all her hopes?
My Review:
4/5 stars. I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I really enjoyed reading about Christy just being a teenager and growing up, but on the other hand, Rick made this book worse.
Rick was kind of confusing. He was pretty selfish and possessive, but then he also said really sweet and romantic things sometimes and was hugging Christy a lot. I think the bad outweighs the good moments, though. He expected Christy to adapt her entire life for him (changing her work hours, not making plans with friends, etc.), showed up hours late for dates, was extremely jealous of Todd, and made fun of her for keeping her values and morals. I don't like that there weren't any repercussions for him selling Christy's bracelet from Todd.
Christy annoyed me a little bit in this book, too. She was very indecisive and kind of let Rick walk all over her. She made up for it, though, when she broke up with him and told him how much of a jerk he was, I was proud of her.
I liked seeing Christy get a job and just doing normal teenager-y things. The scene with the snake escaping from its cage was very entertaining. She's getting older and feels much more her age now compared to in the earlier books.
Todd was barely in this book, which was disappointing. He went off to Hawaii, so I don't know how he and Christy are gonna reunite in the next couple books, but I want to see more of them together again. I also missed the rest of the gang in this book. We saw Doug, which was great because I love Doug, and we saw a few of the girls, but I wanted more of them.
I've seen some other reviewers saying that Christy's parents were too strict. I can see that, but I liked when her dad said that having a teenager was all new to them and they were learning. I feel like that means that they'll give her a little more freedom in the later books because she's pretty responsible.
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