Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Irene has a dream--to one day open a beauty salon specializing in the hairstyles of famous book heroines. You know, Great Women in Literature, like Franny Glass, Shug Avery, Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God. The only problem is, she's just been fired from her own mother's hair salon. Fired. By her own mother. Clearly, this hairstyling business is going to need a bit of work.

But her mother and Judith Prior, owner of a secondhand shop a few doors down from her mom's shop, approach her with a proposition for a summer job-- Judith will pay Irene to babysit her two children, Lainie and Evan, for the summer. Suddenly Irene's plans of drawing more hairstyles in her Heroine Heads notebook, of sunning herself on the beach, are thrown out the window in return for watching two kids.

She's relegated herself to a boring summer when she meets Starla, a new lifeguard at Larkin's Pond, and suddenly Irene's days are looking up. Starla is everything that Irene is not--beautiful, outspoken, brazen, and obsessed with boys. As Starla appears to take Irene under her wings, other things begin to fall by the wayside--like Irene's responsibility towards Lainie and Evan, her good sense, and her easygoing nature.

MY ALMOST EPIC SUMMER is a quick, entertaining read that will have you both laughing and cringing at the situations Irene finds herself in. Although not as emotionally involved as most of Ms. Griffin's previous releases, this is a great book for summer reading! ( )