On Sale Date: June 28th 2016
Pages: 256
Age Range: Young Adult
The first part if the story is set in sophomore year: Penny is the star of her high school's theatre department. he is best friends with most of those who work with her in theater, including her best friend, Wes. Who she's realising has changed and she possibly has feelings for. But she has problems at home. Her mother is an alcoholic, who blames Penny for her problems. This is something she never talks about with her friends.
The next part takes place in senior year: here Penny is a completely different person. She ditched her old theatre friends for the more popular people in school, and is not taking part in any theatre shows anymore. During a party with her popular friends, a terrible drama happens: Penny is struck by lightning when she is in the swimming pool. When she wakes up, she's stuck a year in the past. She doesn't remember her most recent life. Why is she not friends with her best friends anymore, why did she suddenly quit theatre? Penny starts looking for answers to what she did in the past.As a record number of fireflies light up her town and her life, Penny realizes she may be able to make things right again—and that even if she can’t change the past, she can learn to see the magic where she never could before.
This is such a nice read! I haven't read any book by this author before so I didn't know what to expect. I really liked the character of Penny and what she went through during the book. It wasn't confusing that it jumped from one time period, in past and present, to the other. For some books that doesn't work, in other books it does. This books fits in the last category. Penny wasn't just the regular nice girl that we know from most YA books. She has a nice side in the part where she is in theater and after she is struck by lightning, but when she ditches her friends and all of that she really shows another side. This made her quite interesting to read about. The most interesting part though was after she was struck by lightning and tries to learn more about what she did in senior year. She really did treat some friends in an undeserved bad way and tries to make peace with them and make things right.The romance between her and Wes was cute. It was nothing that I haven't read in another YA novel though, nothing very special, but cute in some way.
Overall I really liked this book. The way it was written, the plot, the characters and the setting. A nice read for the summer!
