You Wouldn't Dare

Juniper and her mother live on the North Shore of White Coral Beach, where they run a small cafe right next to their home. Juniper has a good friend Milo nearby, as well as friend-turned-secret-boyfriend, Graham. Her mother is dating Paul, who has a daughter, Tallulah, who is a year younger, and announces that the two have decided to move in together before thinking about getting married. Juniper isn't thrilled, but is even less thrilled when she realizes that she and her mother will be moving to the posh South Shore to live in Paul's house. The only upside is that her father, whom she hasn't seen in two years, is going to be working nearby for a while, and Juniper has talked her mother into letting her father stay in their house. Things are complicated with Milo and Graham: Milo's girlfriends don't always like Juniper, and Graham's father has recently separated from his mother because he got a younger women, who was a friend of Juniper's, pregnant. Graham's mother quit working for Graham's father, and moved away to be with family who offered her a new job with benefits. Graham isn't handling any of it well, and he and Juniper have a fraught relationship. Juniper is involved in a community theater production of a 1920s reworking on Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Nights Dream, and it is running into difficulties as well. As Tallulah and Juniper spend more time together, they do learn to get along better, but Tallulah's emerging relationship with Juniper's longtime friend Lucy, also changes the dynamics. While the summer drama never reaches the level of Juniper's favorite television show, Proper Southern Ladies, there's still plenty of it to be had.

YOU WOULDN'T DARE is a heartfelt YA contemporary. Juniper (Junie) is ready for this summer to be a do-over after the mess she made of the summer before. She and her close-knit friends group are going to be spending the summer together as usual, but things are still a bit off from her fall-out with Graham after their secret relationship ended spectacularly. She is acting in the local community theatre, which needs more actors to put on Midsummer Madness, and if it goes well, she could get elected for theatre club president in her coming senior year, a title she would love to have. She just needs to get her friends on board.

Her summer is thrown for a bit of a loop when her mother tells her that they will be moving in with her doctor boyfriend and his daughter, Tallulah, who really seems to hate Juniper. Their lives are unwillingly intertwined, especially since her friends seem ready to embrace Tallulah, even if Junie is not. As the summer continues, Junie has a lot to learn about friendship, family, and falling in love.

What I loved: This was an absolutely gripping read that pulls the reader into Junie's summer. Her character arc really drives the story, as she has a lot that she needs to figure out. While it has been just her and her mother since her birth, she is learning how to let others in to her circle, giving up her childhood home, and figuring out how to survive in a new family structure. She is also dealing with the complicated feelings she has for Graham and the guilt she carries over what happened the summer before. She treasures her close friendships, and she worries what a changing friendship would do to that, but she cannot help the feelings she still has.

She is also dealing with her desire to be theatre president, her performance in the play, and her father. Her father and her mother were never fully together in her lifetime, and her father has been absent for most of it, coming when he wants. He has called and said he will come for her show and her birthday, and Junie is really excited about it - even though her mother suspects that he will let her down. Her complicated relationship with her father has also driven her skeptical view of relationships, something she does not yet fully understand herself, but affects her desire to be in a relationship with Graham but also how she reacts to her friends' romantic relationships.

Junie is a really compelling character, and her story is what really drives the book. This is a summer of epiphanies for her as her world changes and expands, in some ways a coming-of-age type plot. She is easy to cheer for, and the lessons she learns along the way are hard-won in many cases. Her heart is big, but it can be a bit prickly, and the way this evolves was really lovely. I also particularly loved Graham, who is just such a wonderful character - and it was so easy to cheer for them together. Her other friends are also fantastic characters, and we should all be so lucky to have friends like them. Their text chains added something fun to the story, infusing a bit of humor and charm to the story.

Even Tallulah, who starts as an enemy, grows on the reader and becomes a really intriguing person that the reader gets to know along with Junie. The themes on family were quite powerful. Though Junie's family is changing, she has yet to learn that some changes may be for the better. Found family ends up being a gift she realizes that she has, not only with her mother's relationship, but also her friends, whose bonds are really powerful.

Final verdict: YOU WOULDN'T DARE is a lovely YA contemporary that captures the magic of summer personal growth, friendship, and found family. Highly recommend picking up this unputdownable gem!