A Month of Sundays by Ruth White

Garnet hasn't has the best life around. She's had to wear hand me downs, live on top of a grocery store, and her father deserted her before she ever was even born. Her mother refuses to get any help from her father even if it'll better her life. Instead of doing that she decided to just dump her with her father's sister (her aunt) that she's never met before and go gallivanting off to Florida with her friend Lily to go find a job. Her mother promises to get enough money as soon as she can and send her bus fare but that doesn't make Garnet go running to write her a letter back especially when she starts even liking spending time with her family, being to wear new clothes, having a room to herself, and even meeting a cute boy.

Garnet's actual name is April. Her whole name is April Garnet Rose. but her mom's always called her Garnet so that's what she goes by. There's a tradition of month names in the Rose family so that's why her dad's name is August and there is a couple of other month names in there too. Where is her dad? He is a restless traveler and his sister hasn't even seen him in a year. He left her mom for a carnival singer... He's one of those guys that could win you over with a smile and that's just the way he was with her mom. Her mom I thought wasn't so great. I mean she sent letters over but she was being very demanding of her. She does leave her off in a place with complete strangers to her and she expects a 14 year old to act like nothing is wrong? I noticed that Garnet actually only seemed angry with her mother. She actually had a nice time with her family.

So there's her Aunt June who is looking for God and she takes her to a different church every Sunday. She's a very happy go lucky person. The type of person that exudes warmth. Her son Emory on the other hand... he's just angry with the world while his younger brother Avery is such a sweetheart to her. He says these dumb little jokes that everyone laughs at just to be nice which I don't understand only because when they really laugh at somebody's joke it isn't very funny. Then she has her uncle who doesn't really seem to like her and hasn't even said a word to her like she's a burden.

Now we get to the good part. The boy. This is like a Flipped romance. It's purely sweet. Holding hands and they hung out at church functions so you get the idea that I really do mean a sweet romance. The religious portion isn't like a really big deal if say you weren't religious. I mean they did go to church but it didn't throw anything at your face. I enjoyed this book but was somewhat displeased. There were two moments, big moments, where I thought the author rushed the story way too much and it's a shame because the book is great and if it wasn't rushed on those parts it would have been perfect. I also semi have a problem with Garnet. I did like her character especially since she was so nice to her neighbor who wasn't all that right in the head. She tried to be a good person and never caused trouble and then she had a little bit of fire in her but she acted angry with her mother for dumping her with her family but she never once was unhappy. She was mad at her mother but she never was lonely... Ugh. How to explain this? Her emotions just didn't seem real. It's basically like when you say one thing and do the other. Otherwise she was a likable character. I immensely enjoyed the book. All I really needed was for the author not to rush!