My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris

From Goodreads: On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze. 

Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore. 

Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?

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Cat Crawford is a teen girl on the verge of her 16^th birthday. She is shy and a bit of loner, part of which comes from being hurt and not wanting people to get close to her. She is a big art enthusiast, and has been dreaming of going to Italy and exploring her Italian heritage for quite some time. While on a tour through the city she stumbles upon a gypsy and thus begins the start of her time traveling adventure.

When she discovers that she must have gone back in time, she wasn’t as freaked out as I thought she would be. Especially for a 15 year old, she took the situation rather well…almost too well. Though she does panic a bit at first, she warms to the idea and decides to use this trip as a way to discover more about her family. Her family consisting of her uncle Marco, aunt Francesca, and cousins Alessandra and Cipriano.

While staying her with her 16^th century family she meets Lorenzo, the best friend of Cipriano. Lorenzo is quite taken with Cat, but she dismisses him as being a total player and wants nothing to do with him.  Eventually her feelings change and she starts to like him.  The more she stays there and interacts with everyone the more she starts to look at things differently.

"Letting anyone besides Dad get close to me was never a part of my life plan. I’ve seen what it does, the pain it can cause. But now it’s happening anyway, and not just with Lorenzo. Alessandra, Cipriano, my aunt and uncle… Loving each of them is like an earthquake— I can feel it; I know the destruction it’ll leave behind and have witnessed previous aftermaths, but I’m powerless to stop it. And the worst part is, I don’t really want to."

-Rachel Harris, My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century

(That is one of my favorite quotes in the book).

My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century (MSSSC for short) is a fun and light-hearted read, that I am happy to have discovered. It has some fluffiness, but not too much so that it’s over the top, which is good.  Normally I don’t like the whole time traveling concept in books, but for this story I didn’t mind it.  Even though this book is on the younger side of the YA book spectrum than what I would normally go for, I was still able to get into it and enjoy the story.  One thing that I liked was Rachel Harris’s way of describing Italy and the various surroundings. It was so nicely detailed that I almost felt like I was there too. My only big complaint is that there is a cliffhanger at the end. That I was not expecting at all. Now I will be on pins and needles wondering when the second book will be released and what will happen next.  I liked this book enough that even though I got it as an ARC, I ended up buying a copy anyway.

Rating: 4 out of 5.