Book Review: Being Friends with Boys

Title: Being Friends with Boys by Terra Elan McVoy

Release Date: May 1, 2012
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary
Source: Publisher

Goodreads Summary: Charlotte and Oliver have been friends forever. She knows that he, Abe, and Trip consider her to be one of the guys, and she likes it that way. She likes being the friend who keeps them all together. Likes offering a girl's perspective on their love lives. Likes being the behind-the-scenes wordsmith who writes all the lyrics for the boys' band. Char has a house full of stepsisters and a past full of backstabbing (female) ex-best friends, so for her, being friends with boys is refreshingly drama-free...until it isn't any more.

When a new boy enters the scene and makes Char feel like, well, a total girl...and two of her other friends have a falling out that may or may not be related to one of them deciding he possibly wants to be more than friends with Char...being friends with all these boys suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.

Charlotte is the lone girl in her band, Sad Jackal. She writes their songs and manages them but prefers to keep a low profile and let the boys take the spot light. After being dropped by her best friend, Lish, who starts avoiding Char in order to hang out with more popular girls, Char has only the boys left and that’s okay with her. Things do start getting complicated when Trip, the band mate that she hangs out with the most, quits the band and two new boys join. Being Friends with Boys is an adorable book about how Char handles relationships with several very cool and very different boys and all the complications that go along with them.

I’m a very character driven reader and Terra Elan McVoy is awesome at writing them. I loved Char! She was a normal, likable girl without ever being boring. I loved that she got inspiration from her songs from looking at pictures of family and friends and from her life experiences. Char does have some issues with abandonment but McVoy handles even the angsty stuff so well, it was never annoying, just wonderfully done. I loved the boys as well with the exception of Oliver who I thought was pompous but I guess at least one of them had to be a jerk.

The thing that surprised me that most was Char’s healthy, supportive relationships with her father, stepmother and stepsisters. It would have been easy for McVoy to make this blended family a cause of pain and suffering in Char's life. Don’t get me wrong, Char does have drama (including some from her mom), but the author definitely went against stereotypes and does not vilify the usual suspects.

Overall, Being Friends with Boys was a cute and funny book. The romance in the book was really sweet and made me smile. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves YA contemporary novels or books about music and bands. This will also make a great summer read and is perfect for when you are reading on the beach or by the pool!

Content: Kissing, profanity, underage drinking and drug use.

My Rating: Really Good!

Book Review: The Accidental Bride

Title: The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter

Release Date: Jan. 3, 2012
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pages: 304 pages
Genre: Christian Fiction

Goodreads Summary: Two high-school sweethearts, a wedding reenactment, and one absent-minded preacher. Is it a recipe for disaster or a chance for a new beginning?

Shay Brandenberger is a survivor. She's lived through a crazy childhood, a failed marriage, and single parenthood-with her confidence intact.

 But not for long. Because when Shay participates in her town's Founder's Day wedding reenactment, she finds herself face-to-face with the one man who takes her breath away and leaves her weak in the knees: Travis McCoy.

Travis is back in town after years way on the rodeo circuit. His one regret in life is breaking Shay's heart when they were high-school sweethearts. He's determined to get it right this time.

So when their Founder's Day "marriage" is accidentally made official, Travis seizes the day. Can Shay put aside her pride to let Travis help her, or will their accidental marriage be dissolved before it can begin?

As much as I like Christian fiction, cowboy stories are not my thing so reading The Accidental Bride was stepping way out of my comfort zone. Apparently, I need to go out there more often because this book was really good!

The novel is set in breathtaking Montana and Denise Hunter does a great job of taking you to the beautiful, wide open spaces in the book. While it’s hard to imagine how a couple could accidentally get married, this is fiction, I went with it and it worked. 

There is a lot of really good tension between our main characters Shay and Travis. Shay suffered horrible heartbreak and humiliation after Travis left her at the altar and more humiliation after the man she ended marrying (on the rebound) leaves her as well. As a character, Shay is very likable. She is a woman who is struggling financially and emotionally but strives to make a good life for her daughter and herself. Travis, on the other hand, had nothing but success since leaving Shay and even though she is ridiculously tough on him when he comes back into her life, it’s hard to feel sorry for him. I did end up liking Travis a lot and rooting for these characters to be together.

The Accidental Bride is a sweet, contemporary romance about second chances and forgiveness. The novel is the second in the Big Sky Romance series but I read it as a stand alone and it worked just fine. I recommend this one to anyone who likes a really good love story.

Content: Kissing and implied sex.

My Rating: Really Good!

Book Review: Awkward

Title: Awkward by Marni Bates

Release Date: Jan 1, 2012
Publisher: Kensington
Pages: 300 pages
Genre: Contemporary
Source: Publisher

Goodreads Summary: Mackenzie Wellesley has spent her life avoiding the spotlight. At Smith High, she's the awkward junior people only notice when they need help with homework. Until she sends a burly football player flying with her massive backpack and makes a disastrous - not to mention unwelcome - attempt at CPR. Before the day is out, the whole fiasco explodes on YouTube. And then the strangest thing happens. Suddenly, Mackenzie is an Internet sensation, with four million hits and counting. Sucked into a whirlwind of rock stars, paparazzi, and free designer clothes, she even catches the eye of the most popular guy at school. And that's when life gets really interesting...

One of my bookish resolutions for this year is to read more contemporary books and I’m so happy I started with Awkward. This book is funny, sweet and highly entertaining. In other words, it's my type of contemporary YA book.

Mackenzie is a girl with issues. Her father cheated on her mother when Mackenzie was a kid and she blames herself for the divorce and her dad’s subsequent abandonment. As a result, she does not trust men, rely on anyone or allow others to pay her way. Ever. Because of an embarrassing and traumatic childhood incident, Mackenzie goes through great lengths to not attract attention in school, to be invisible. 

Mackenzie’s character is, as the title of the book implies, very awkward but she is also very funny. She does not really filter her thoughts, says whatever comes to mind and when she gets nervous, she babbles random facts. Her faux pas are cringe worthy and funny at the same time, especially the entire incident that gets her on YouTube.

While fame propels Mackenzie into unfamiliar situations, she tries to handle them with grace and sometimes fails (with hilarious results) but that’s a part of the beauty of this book. I love that Mackenzie is a smart girl that prioritizes her grades and her relationship with her family and friends even after she becomes famous. 

While Awkward is about an ordinary girl who sky rockets to fame overnight, it’s also about self-esteem, perception and about Mackenzie getting over her hang-ups stemming from her father leaving the family. There is also a sweet, well developed romance in the book that I absolutely love. 

While I thought some of the secondary characters, especially Mackenzie’s friend Corey, were a bit cliché, it did not take away from the story. Awkward is a funny and modern contemporary romance that will appeal to both teens and adults. While the book appears to be a standalone novel, Invisible, a book set in the same world as Awkward is scheduled to be released next year. I’m looking forward to it.

Content: Mild profanity, kissing and underage drinking.

My Rating: Really Good!

Book deal alert! Awkward (ebook format) is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $2.99. Get it quick before the price goes back up!

Book Review: There You’ll Find Me

Title: There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones

Release Date: Oct. 4, 2011
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pages: 320 pages
Genre: Christian Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Source: Publisher through NetGalley
Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Goodreads Summary: In a small cottage house in rural Ireland, Finley discovers she can no longer outrun the past.

When Finley travels to Ireland as a foreign exchange student, she hopes to create a new identity and get some answers from the God who took her brother away and seems to have left her high and dry.

But from the moment she boards the plane and sits by Beckett Rush, teen star of the hottest vampire flicks, nothing goes according to Finley's plan.

When she gets too close to Beckett, a classmate goes on a mission to make sure Finley packs her bags, departs Ireland-and leaves Beckett alone.

Finley feels the pressure all around. As things start to fall apart, she begins to rely on a not-so-healthy method of taking control of her life.

 Finley tries to balance it all-disasters on the set of Beckett's new movie, the demands of school, and her growing romance with one actor who is not what he seems. Yet Finley is also not who she portrays to Beckett and her friends. For the first time in her life, Finley must get honest with herself to get right with God.

I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction. I’m more of an escapist reader who prefers fantasy, paranormal romance and science fiction but my friend KM from One Page at a Time raved about this book and recommended that I read it, and since she has never given me a bad recommendation, I thought I would give it a try. I loved There You’ll Find Me so much. It made me laugh, made me cry, made me think about all the things in my own life that I try to control when I should really just let go and let God handle it. While I did not know it at the time, There You’ll Find Me was exactly the kind of book I needed to read. 

Finley, heiress to a hotel chain and recovering party girl, cannot get over the death of her beloved older brother, Will. She is angry at God for not saving Will, a devout Christian and humanitarian who was working to rebuild schools in Afghanistan when he was killed by a bomb. Seeking closure and peace, Finley follows in her brother’s footsteps by going to Ireland for her senior year of high school, just as he did.

Finley is smart and snarky. She is also loving, kind and oh so flawed. I found her to be such a realistic and likable character. She considers Ireland a fresh start but for a girl who has felt that her life is out of control, Finley strives to control what she can (her diet, weight and her relationships with others) with disastrous results. There is an awesome romance in this book that is so sweet! Beckett is a teen heartthrob movie star (along the lines of Robert Pattinson) and the dialogue between he and Finley is hilarious. While I loved seeing the relationship between Finley and Beckett develop, it is not main focus of the book. There You’ll Find Me is really about Finley’s healing and finding her way back to a loving God who never left her in the first place.

The main characters and the secondary characters in this book are very well developed and I must point out that Ireland itself is like a secondary character. The descriptions of the country are breathtaking and makes me want to get there and see it for myself! I also love Jones’ subtle but effective writing, mainly the steady way we see Finley’s issues spiraling out of control. The pacing in the book is perfect, it’s never rushed and not too slow either.

There You’ll Find Me is not your mom’s Christian fiction. It’s fresh, funny, entertaining and extremely appealing to anyone who wants to read really good contemporary YA fiction. I want to thank Ms. Jones for showing me that a book about heavy issues can be sensitively written with humor and light. I’m really, really hoping that she plans on writing more books like this.

Content: Kissing.

My Rating: The Best!

Book Review: Love Story

Title: Love Story by Jennifer Echols
Release Date: July 19, 2011
Publisher: MTV Books
Pages: 256 pages
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 2.5 stars
Source: ARC from Publisher

Goodreads Summary: For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment? Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.

Love Story had so much potential be a great contemporary romance but unfortunately, it fell flat. I was left feeling like I cared more about the main character’s dreams and goals than she did and not liking the leading man at all.

There are two Erin Blackwells in this book. In the first half of the book, Erin is this awesome girl determined to live her dream of majoring in creative writing and becoming a published novelist. In order to live her dream, she gives up her million dollar inheritance and moves to New York taking minimum wage jobs and eating peanut butter crackers for dinner. Erin refuses anything from her controlling and manipulative grandmother and while this is stubborn and proud, I completely understand. Erin works really hard at everything she does and I was rooting for her to make it and get the publishing internship she so badly wanted. Love this Erin!

In the later part of the book, Erin is this annoying girl who can’t stop thinking about Hunter. She becomes this needy stalker who allows herself to be used because she can’t get this boy out of her system. Her priorities seem to change to the point that she is willing to sabotage her creative writing grade and internship to get a reaction out of Hunter. Did not like this Erin.

I loved Jennifer Echols’ writing and the idea of Love Story but I am curious as to why she would write Hunter’s character so flawed to the point that he is not likable. Hunter is controlling and manipulative, just like Erin’s grandmother but he is also a user which makes him worse. He and Erin have a sad history and their families have bad blood but I could not get past these issues enough to like him. I did, however, like the secondary characters and the classroom conversations between Erin and Manohar are some of the funniest I have read in a long time!

Quick question: How does a book get classified as young adult? Teenaged characters, high school/college setting? I am curious because I feel Love Story was more suitable for the adult market than YA. The main characters are over 18 and Erin’s first story for her creative writing class can best be described as a bodice buster while Hunter’s stories are almost all about his sexual encounters.

Content: Sex, underage drinking and profanity. Not recommended for younger teens.