Suzy’s off camping
with her family and best mate Millie. Yep, you heard right… camping! As if
being stuck in a caravan in rainy Wales for two whole weeks weren’t bad enough,
to make matters worse, Mum’s best friend’s daughter, super-glam (and
super-snooty) Isabella is coming too. When Millie starts spending all her time
with Isabella, Suzy is devastated. Can her friendship with Millie survive when
three is most definitely a crowd?
We were first introduced to Suzy P and her wild family and
friends in Saunders’s first book for teens and pre-teens, Me, Suzy P. The first book was thoroughly entertaining, making me smile
many a time, so it's sequel Suzy P and the Trouble With Three had a lot to live up to. And it didn't disappoint.
Despite being aimed at a much younger audience than myself,
you can’t help but relate with Suzy as her summer holiday gets worse and worse.
I found myself remembering how over-hyped summer holidays were at school (they NEVER
lived up to expectations). When I was fourteen, I went on a dreadful holiday with my then best friend. We fought over boys, it rained the whole time and the caravan site we were on was pretty boring. So I could definitely sympathise with Suzy throughout this book and it became a very nostalgic tale for me.
The main character in this series is Suzy, an average
teenage girl. From the first book I've loved Suzy, she’s everything a teenager
is and should be wrapped up in a combination of awkward-hilariousness. She’s
not a perfect main character, she is a real
teenager – stubborn, bold, and self-centred – and that makes her one of the
best teenage main characters I've ever read. I don’t think any teenage girls
out there (or anyone who has ever been a teenage girl) could read Suzy and not
relate to her a little bit.
Unfortunately, one of things that made the first book so
perfect was the foursome – Suzy, her best mate Millie, and their boyfriends
Danny and Jamie. We don’t get to see much of the foursome in this book, and
instead are lumped with Isabella – a character who we really have no reason to
like until the end of the book. Luckily, Suzy, Millie (despite her faults) and
her family are still charming.
As I found in the first book, I pretty much knew what was
going to happen by the end of the book from the first few pages. But that didn’t
make the book any less enjoyable to read, as the characters in this wonderful
series are worth much more than the storyline.
I'm packing this book (and the first one) off to the twelve
year old I babysit… I have a feeling she’s going to love it!
*A massive thank you to Templar Publishing for the copy of this book
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