S.A.S.S. 9

The maybe-a-bit-too-appropriately-named Marina is travelling from Stowe, Vermont down to the Caribbean for a two-month marine biology program. Her main worry though is her future with the boyfriend who's not too happy about being left behind.

Thankfully, this book manages to blend a lot of marine biology into its boy drama. Marina finally decides she and her boyfriend are going in different directions and breaks it off, although part of her inspiration is the hot Aussie student in her focus group.

While I do wish there was more local history and cultural info, it was still quite a good read and Marina gets to do things no one else in this series has when she teaches dolphins and swims with a whale shark.

Next stop: Skiing in Finland.

S.A.S.S. 8

I did not have the highest expectations for this book, as the premise seemed to be that she went on the Swedish study abroad program because she wanted to spend time with her boyfriend, who was the foreign exchange student from Sweden in her high school. That quickly becomes beside the point when the asshole dumps her via email, saying it's not a good time for him to have a girlfriend.

Calista spends a lot of the book immersed in Swedish culture and loving learning the language. I know basically nothing about Sweden that isn't related to Christina, so I learned a lot. My only wish was for a pronunciation guide! These books love using the languages of the countries they're in, but don't tell you how to say 99.9% of the words. 

So culture-wise, this one was great. Study-wise, it was pretty good. Calista did a Viking project that was interesting. Romance-wise, it was also good, because she spends most of the trip realizing that she doesn't make good dating choices, going mostly for guys that other people think she should date or athletic ones her dad would like. There's a lot of self-reflection and not much actual romance, and the guy she does finally pick is awesome, so what little there is is enjoyable.

I also liked how being apart helped her and her twin sister repair their distant relationship.

Not one of my big favorites, but a lot more solid than several.

Next stop: the Caribbean. I'm already 1/3 through this one and it's good.