Gold Medal Summer

By Summer A.

I'm a girl who loves gymnastics. It's my life. I can relate to the girl who is in this book. A 14 year old girls life isn't easy being a serious gymnast. Johanna known as joey has drama coming back and forth and gymnastics just adds on her plate. A girl that has gymnastics seven days a week for six hours can't fix all the drama in one day.

Donna Frietas, author of Gold Medal Summer has wrote The Survival Kit, The Gorgeous Game and Gold Medal Winter. Gold Medal Summer is fiction. Joeys life revolves around gymnastics. Joey can not have a boyfriend and have a regular girls social life. Once an old friend moves back she can't resist but drule over him. This causes her to fail at her practices which only makes her coach resent her even more. Then Joey has her best friend who quits the team a few weeks before regionals. Also she goes behind her coaches back hoping at regionals for his approval for a new routine she's been practicing with the assistant coach. Overall she can't have drama on her mind while she's on the high bars.

This book had a good plot, good pacing but the dialog was too fast. The plot was interesting to read. The pacing flowed throughout the story. On the other hand the dialog was rushed. The conservations were too short and changed to different subjects. Every time it started a new subject it would change to a new one which was annoying. At the beginning of the book it wasn't urging me to read on but once I got to the plot I couldn't stop reading. the pacing throughout the story was good enough for the readers to catch up and process everything in the story.

I suggest this book to anyone who loves teen girl drama. You don't need to love gymnastics to enjoy this book. This novel shows that you could be so young and achieve so much. Balancing friends and boys with what you've been preparing for your whole life isn't as easy as balancing yourself on the balance beam.

I have never read Donna Frietas books before. I have been encouraged to read more of her books by how my reaction was with this book. I have experience with what joey goes through which made me love reading this book even more.

Gold Medal Summer by Donna Frietas, Amazon Digital Services, June 1, 2012 , 240 pages