S.A.S.S. 4

We're off to San Sebastián, Spain with protagonist Elena Holloway. Elena is Spanish on her mother's side and even has a great-aunt and other extended family living in Barcelona, but with her pale skin and brown hair, she doesn't feel Spanish.

Elena thinks of herself as more of an introvert, but she chose to live with a host family instead of in the dorms and they never once take her anywhere. They just give her directions at best. She acclimates to the area faster than any of the other characters we've met so far and navigates Spain with a quiet confidence, although she doesn't believe in her own Spanish skills, so that's a bit of a conflict. Like how is she doing all these things on her own without speaking to people?

Elena comes to Spain to do something her other siblings have not done, but there really is no sibling rivalry and that's not much of the story.

Elena and her group of friends do some sightseeing, but it's not really focused on like it was in some of the other books. Some wander bored through a museum in Madrid while the other half of the group is bored by a bullfight (except for one guy, who loves it). The entire Madrid side trip is a rather pointless excursion with the main thing taken away from it being Elena's conversation with her friend and playwrighting partner Alex about how Elena has to do something to let the guy she likes know she likes him.

The romance is lukewarm at best. Elena has what she feels is a one-sided crush and they only get together for her last few hours in Spain. Friends Jenna and Alex only get together for the same, despite liking each other the entire time.

On one hand, I enjoyed the book, but it felt...too light. She adjusts to being in Spain, despite not using the language, too easily, even going to Barcelona by herself to visit her great-aunt. The relationships aren't properly explored. Alex gets away with barely attending any classes because he's a surfer and somehow nothing is ever done about this. He and Elena have an initial rocky start to their joint play project, but once he gets inspired, he's a good partner. Being in Spain itself seems condensed down to going to tapas bars and liking a Spanish boy. Compared to the others, this one feels like it was phoned in, but it was still better than the boyfriend-obsessed chick in France from last time.

Next stop: MUNICH. The only one of these places I've actually been to and I LOVE Germany. I'm a little worried though, because the protagonist might be a new agey flake. Sigh. We'll see!