Porch Swing Girl by Taylor Bennett

☀️Porch Swing Girl by Taylor Bennett☀️

Book one in the Tradewinds series. 

Blurb:

What if friendship cost you everything?Stranded in Hawaii after the death of her mother, sixteen-year-old

Olive Galloway is desperate to escape. She has to get back to Boston before her dad loses all common sense and sells the family house. But plane tickets cost money—something Olive gravely lacks. With the help of Brander, the fussy youth group worship leader, and Jazz, a mysterious girl with a passion for all things Hawaiian, Olive lands a summer job at the Shave Ice Shack and launches a scheme to buy a plane ticket home before the end of the summer.

But when Jazz reveals a painful secret, Olive’s plans are challenged. Jazz needs money. A lot of it. Olive and Brander are determined to help their friend but, when their fundraising efforts are thwarted, Olive is caught in the middle. To help Jazz means giving up her ticket home. And time is running out.

My thoughts: 

It’s crazy how a book can make you feel so many emotions in one setting.

Happiness. 

Sadness.

Wishing I had the second book in hand. (Wait.. that’s not an emotion… Sorry guys. In my book, that’s an emotion. I don’t think people have made up a word fitting enough for what us readers have to go through everytime there’s a cliffhanger or some sort of unfinished series yet. So we’ll just have to go with it.)

When I had first read this book, about a year ago, I remember thinking, “I need more!!”. I mean, everything was all so great! Of course, me being a lover of all things beachy is making me kind of biased; but I’m sure anyone with a heart for contemporary fiction and a whole ton of spiritual content would agree with me.🙃

This book is set in Hawaii, and let me just say, that I’ve always wanted to go there!! It’s my dream vacation. Maybe one of these days my dream will come true. Although seriously, this book was set perfectly! Couldn’t have been better. 

I will admit that Olive needed some character building; but she was really a champ for seeing what was important, by the end. It was also nice to see Brander trying to be a witness and help to Olive. Both Brander’s sweetness and Olive’s personality stood out to me, and I hope to see a blooming relationship between those two. Maybe even more than friends; which we kind of get a hint of “something”, at the end of the book.😉 

⚠️ Age recommendation: 13-14+ ⚠️

My rating: 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sexual Content: 

A cheek kiss and a forehead kiss, some light touches (could be taken as no more than friendly), and some hand holding (only happened a couple of times). Noticing and Blushing. Thinking about a cheek kiss. When the MMC tells a girl “Aloha”, she looks up what it means. It could mean, Hello, Goodbye, and love. Mentions of a date (that wasn’t a “real” date) and not dating. Brander had a bunch of girls that gave him his number. Mentions of him using all those papers, with girl’s numbers, for fuel for the fire that he would have on his wedding. Emotions of something more than friendship. 

Profanity: 

None

Violence:

No real violence, just the story of how Olive’s mother died by cancer and the mentions of a girl having to amputate her leg because of her getting cancer also. (Semi-detailed) 

POV’s: Olive Galloway 

Pages: 303 

This book was a great start to the series, and I hope to review the rest of the series soon! I loved this book a lot and I would totally recommend it! 😁