Since Harper McAllister’s dad (cheesily nicknamed McDaddy) hit it big as a music producer, Harper’s family moved out of their comfortable home to pricy upstate New York where she quickly finds herself in the popular crowd and sharing the wealth with her new best friends. However, when her parents get hold of her overcharged AMEX card, they think Harper needs a reality check from the spoiled girl she has become and send her to Whispering Pines.

This book is a companion book to Calonita’s Sleepaway Girls, set a few years later where beloved characters like Sam and Courtney are college students and full-fledged counselors that help Harper see the good of camp beyond the moldy showers and no-cell service.

While Harper has become more spoiled, though she’s in denial of the fact, as her family mentions the way she buys without a consequences, depends on their maid to do chores, and her only goal is where to shop next or whatever her best friend says they should do. Harper is no longer independent but Calonita keeps readers on Harper’s side by showing her good heart in not using her McAllister name for freebies and kindness to others from waitstaff to the nerds. Something that makes her best friend boil with people responding to Harper’s kindness.

The camp lifers do not warm up to Harper that quickly as Harper blunders one activity after another, earning the nickname Camper Barbie as everyone pegs her as a squemish, girly girl. While she hates camp initially, she forms a great friendship with another semi-new girl, Lina and a bet with her twin brother fuels her to tough it out.

It’s a very wholesome book as Harper gradually grows out of her comfort zone and comes to appreciate her own talents in cooking and forms a new interest in trying new things. Her time at camp also teaches her what rela friendship is ad recognizing how she has changed by buying her friendships instead of putting in the work.

That changes but of course, Harper does have several blackslides and one major climatic accident but Calonita’s signature character building is realistic that the conclusion feels triumphant without being too sappy. There’s also a summer romance but Harper’s development isn’t overshadowed or hinges on it. Rather it is a nice complement to Harper’s insights on what real friendship and real quality comes from.

While Harper realizes the bad influence of her friendship back home, she also deals with mean girls at camp which Calonita refreshingly doesn’t wrap up with revenge or a make up. There’s also no real solution which I found even more realistic as sometimes you don’t get a big confrontation with anatagonistic people. Sometimes you just learn to tolerate and avoid each other.

Another classic Calonita staple is her mentioning characters from her previous novels, this time Alexis Holden from Secrets of My Hollywood Life whose apparently jetsetting and married. Guess that film career didn’t work out too well for her, hehe.

Overall, a very wholesome summer read with likable characters that readers will enjoy its themes of friendship and camp fun.