Book Review: The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
- Jayla Wilson
- Jun 24
- 2 min read
Book Review: The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
June 23, 2025
Spoiler-free review
Book: The Summer of Broken Rules
Author: K.L. Walther
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire (2021)
Overall Rating: 3.75/5
If you’re looking for a quick, fun, easy, fast-paced summer read, look no further. The Summer of Broken Rules might be for you.
Our main character, Meredith, is a teenage girl dealing with grief while attending her cousin’s wedding in Martha’s Vineyard. She recently lost her sister in an accident and is trying to work through that while simultaneously trying to regain her spirit for life. Everyone in the wedding is invited to the family's house to celebrate for a few days. Meredith meets a boy, Witt, who is related to the groom. The shenanigans take off from there.
First and foremost, I enjoyed this book. The plot was adorable and fun. They played a game of Assassin that involved water fights, targets, and alliances. The perfect summer game. The scenery and descriptions truly transport you to the island. The characters were a bit underdeveloped, but the plot was so amusing that I didn’t mind it all that much.
A negative for me in this book was the “instant love”. I felt that there was a bit of this happening - the characters had a quick connection that just felt a little unrealistic. I don’t expect every romance I read to be a slow-burn, but this needed more time and scenes to develop.
This is a young adult (YA) novel, and that completely shows in the writing. The writing style and the dialogue were very simplistic. I didn’t dock stars for this, though, because the book is marketed for teens. When I read and review, I like to keep in mind if a book is intended for my age group. In this case, it wasn’t, but that doesn’t make me regret reading it.
Overall, I gave this book 3.75 stars on Goodreads: Goodreads- Jayla Wilson. Follow me there to keep up with updates in real time!
Would I recommend it? I would, but only for its intended age group. If you don’t mind writing that is very YA, then I would say go for it! If you’ve read this book, let me know your thoughts down below :)
Seems like a fun plot.