I’ve got your number: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella

Believe me or not I’ve got your number was released in Italy a few months ago (translation: Ho il tuo numero) , it hasn’t been released in english yet.

The original english version is usually the one I prefer but desperate times call for desperate measures and I needed something fun & entertaining, I knew I could rely on Sophie Kinsella.

From Goodreads:

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry the ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her ‘happy ever after’ begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but in the panic that followed, she has now lost her phone. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
Well, perfect except the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life.
What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents… she soon realises that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

First of all it’s not that UNPREDICTABLE (stop here , spoilers are coming)…I read lots of romantic novels and I am always able to predict who ends up with who by page 10, what’s intriguing is how they end up together.

I’ve got your number is Kinsella at her best: fun & light & romantic & entertaining, I read it in 2 days.

Sam Roxton is DREAMY, not the sort of businessman I ever had the pleasure to work with, he is confident and a little obnoxious, loyal, has a dry sense of humor, has a BIG HEART when it matters.

So far Sam Roxton is my favorite male character created by Sophie Kinsella, this is saying something considering I read them all.

Poppy Whyatt isn’t Becky Bloomberg, she is a little too cute for my taste however she can get carried away and create some exhilarating situations.

Sam and Poppy work really well together, they find themselves sharing a phone for a while, reading each others emails and texts, developing a friendship.

… and then there is a beautifully written scene, I could feel the  butterflies in my stomach, and the ending…oh the ending! is spectacular.

It made me laugh a lot, plus as I mentioned I became very fond of Sam, it always happens when I read a novel written by Mrs Kinsella, by the end of the book we know a lot about HER and not to much about HIM so I sort of wish for a sequel in which I get to know Sam better.

It would be perfect on screen (if if if…I hated Confession of a Shopaholic, the movie!)

Enjoy

My grade: 4/5

Em

The secret countess by Eva Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson had been on my mind for a while and then I was invited to We Love Ya on Chachic’s blog where both Angie and Holly recommended A Company of Swans and A Song for Summer but The Secret Countess was already on my bookshelf so I decided to start from this one.

I am super glad I did it because The Secret Countess it’s one of those enchanting, make-you-feel-good-about-being-good fairytale plus it’s unputdownable and once I started reading about Anna Grazinski I simply could not stop.

Anna Grazinski is the heir of an aristocratic russian family based in St Petersburg, in Russia Anna has the most perfect life,  speaks many languages, plays the piano, she is not the most beautiful girl at court but her humble attitude and charm make her impossible to resist.

When revolution tears Russia apart and her beloved father dies, her now-penniless family is forced to flee to England where Anna becomes a housemaid at Mersham, a magnificent mansion on the verge of ruin.

Years ago  Rupert, The Earl of Westerholm, had promised his older brother that if required he would have done his best to save Mersham.

Differently from his brother Rupert has survived the war, he is coming back to Mersham and is getting married to the beautiful Muriel, a wealthy heiress who can afford to save Mersham and, most importantly, she wants to because those two are in love or so they think.

But the real story is about Anna and Mersham and the way Anna integrates herself so well that she becomes Mersham and Rupert learns to love his house through her.

This is a fairytale so there are no surprises, no shades, characters are pure goodness or utterly evil, Anna is a mix of earnestness, grace, sensitivity, she is perfect the way only fairytales’ heroines are.

I enjoyed reading about a princess who finds herself scrubbing floors and charms a whole community of supporting characters.

All supporting characters are great and there many but Ibbotson doesn’t overdo, she orchestrates them perfectly,  every single character is relevant and adds a contribution to the narration.

Predictability is not a bad thing, most of the books I read are  predictable and yet I don’t mind, I enjoy the ride if the story is well written and makes me feel something / think about something.

This it’s what I call a comfort book, a perfect way to spend a lazy day on the couch with a blanket and a cup of cocoa.

I reached the end with a BIG smile on my face and with a vague sensation that being good matters.

My grade: 4/5

Em

Soulless by Gail Carriger

I picked up Soulless following Lit Snit’s recommendation without really knowing what to expect,  I am glad to say that Soulless has a mix of dry humor, personality, style and  romance that really worked for me and let’s not forget that Lord Maccon is a werewolf and you know how I feel about those.

From Amazon:

Prickly, stubborn 25-year-old bluestocking Alexia Tarabotti is patently unmarriageable, and not just because she’s large-nosed and swarthy. She’s also soulless, an oddity and a secret even in a 19th-century London that mostly accepts and integrates werewolf packs, vampire hives and ghosts. The only man who notices her is brash Lord Conall Maccon, a Scottish Alpha werewolf and government official, and (of course) they dislike each other intensely. After Alexia kills a vampire with her parasol at a party—how vulgar!—she and Conall must work together to solve a supernatural mystery that grows quite steampunkishly gruesome. Well-drawn secondary characters round out the story, most notably Lord Akeldama, Alexia’s outrageous, italic-wielding gay best vampire friend.

A few years ago I had an appraisal with my manager and in my improvement area she wrote think overnight before speaking and then she added it’s probably because you are italian.

Every time Alexia blurts out her abrupt considerations, which happens quite often,  Carriger mentions her italian heritage and I can’t help smiling.

I instantly liked Alexia, an outspoken, sophisticated, perfectly mannered spinster which means  she can get away with many things (which she does).

It helps a lot that she is almost unique, Alexia  is a preternatural, who has no soul and can neutralize other supernatural beings such as vampires and werewolves, it’s a very rare condition she inherited from her italian father and very few people know about it.

The background is also very peculiar, it’s a Victorian London in which different communities, vampires, humans, werewolves coexist pacifically and respecting established rules.

This book it’s pure fun, it vaguely reminds me of Julia Quinn,  the romance  dynamic is also one of my favorite: a clever spinster who gave up hope for a marriage proposal and a hero clearly out of her league, except he is not.

And there are juicy bits that I wasn’t expecting, a welcome addiction to an interesting plot that works thanks to Alexia and Lord Maccon’s chemistry  but let’s not forget some well accomplished supporting characters like Lord Akeldama, a rather eccentric vampire, Professor Lyall, Beta to Alpha Wolf Lord Maccon, Foote, Alexia’s butler.

I really enjoyed the writing style, in typical victorian fashion here it’s a novel where the most daring conversations see our characters enjoying a walk in the park or a cup of tea.

It’s all rather polite and clever, very refreshing, absolutely worth reading. It’s a comedy of manners and I am a sucker for those.

Halloween is coming and I am  thinking of putting together an Alexia Tarabotti’s outfit, seriously that cover is an inspiration!

Other reviews:

Janicu’s Book Blog

Bookshelves of doom

Jawas Read, Too!

Angieville

Subverting The Text

The Infinite Shelf

My grade: 4/5

Em

One for the money by Janet Evanovich

I honestly don’t know why it took me so long to consider reading Janet Evanovich, encouragement came from  “casting call” on Lit Snit and I am glad I read this one, it was fun.

The movie is also coming up soon and Katherine Heigl has been chosen to play Stephanie Plum:

I love Katherine Heigl but she wouldn’t have been my first choice (while reading this I kept thinking about Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich).

From Goodreads:

Stephanie Plum is so smart, so honest, and so funny that her narrative charm could drive a documentary on termites. But this tough gal from New Jersey, an unemployed discount lingerie buyer, has a much more interesting story to tell: She has to say that her Miata has been repossessed and that she’s so poor at the moment that she just drank her last bottle of beer for breakfast. She has to say that her only chance out of her present rut is her repugnant cousin Vinnie and his bail-bond business. She has to say that she blackmailed Vinnie into giving her a bail-bond recovery job worth $10,000 (for a murder suspect), even though she doesn’t own a gun and has never apprehended a person in her life. And she has to say that the guy she has to get, Joe Morelli, is the same creep who charmed away her teenage virginity behind the pastry case in the Trenton bakery where she worked after school.

Recipe for a bestseller: feisty sexy heroine aka Stephanie Plum, childhood crush turned into hot cop maybe also a dangerous murderer aka Joe Morelli, a grandmother that could be on stage in a stand-up act, a psycho boxer, a mystery plot, a pinch of sarcasm, a generous amount of sense of humor,  blend them together and voilà your summer read it’s ready-to-go.

It actually works, regardless of characters’ predictability there is a certain freshness in this story, Evanovich can write, she manages to create compelling characters that don’t take themselves too seriously, follow their lead and enjoy the ride, start questioning and the whole thing might collapse into a flabby soufflè.

Stephanie Plum might be a clueless bounty hunter but you can’t argue with her determination, I for instance respect a girl who toughens up and faces dangerous criminals.

I read this on vacation and it was great fun. I don’t know if I will embrace those others 15 books in the series but I have already booked the second one.

My grade: 4/5

Em

Cracked up to be by Cortney Summers

I read a billion  reviews on Courtney Summers’s début novel, mostly enthusiastic reviews, a few of them made me realize how emotionally involved  those readers became with Parker’s story. A book that creates  havoc is a treat, it doesn’t happen very often.

While reading Cracked up to be I didn’t feel so emotionally involved and surely I wasn’t thinking “hey that could be me or my dear friend…”, borrowing an expression from Forever Young Adult : BFF’s charm  equals zero but Parker is a compelling character, sarcastic, manipulative…once she captures your attention it’s impossible to turn your back on her (regardless of the fact that it’s exactly what she wants)  you have to keep reading and find out the whole  story.

Plus this novel  it’s so intense & well written that deserves to be read .

Before and after “the event that changes her life” Parker is a total bitch and it bothers me that a nice guy like Jake makes an effort to get close to her, then again how many times did we get to see the opposite routine? Smart Sweet Girl that can’t help falling for the moody, selfish, asshole-kind-of-guy.

It’s refreshing to see things the other way around, Summers does an amazing job providing Parker with strong motivations, solid background, realistic behaviour and excellent supporting characters.

She also wraps things neatly with an ending that it’s pretty much perfect.

Cracked Up to Be doesn’t try to describe a fake happy-go-version of the “ world teens live in” but maybe it goes a bit too far in the opposite direction:

Four years, two suicides, one death, one rape, two pregnancies (one abortion), three overdoses, countless drunken antics, pantsings, spilled food, theft, fights, broken limbs, turf wars–every day, a turf war–six months until graduation and no one gets a medal when they get out. But everything you do here counts

(and reading this now I do think that it’s overly dramatic but it works in the book)

Maybe times have changed but  I remember that by the time I turned 18 there were very few people left  in my year who hadn’t had sex or  got drunk (hopefully both), normal teens like Jake who had fun and didn’t get in trouble so I am worried that parents might read this  book and lock their daughters in their rooms (not necessary).

Truth is that if  writers want to keep older teens interested they have to start writing about real teens avoiding that annoying sugar-coating that too often occurs, but don’t worry you won’t find it in here.

Last but not least Parker’s character vaguely remembers me of Isabel in “Let’s Get Lost” by Sarra Manning (a book I highly recommend).

My grade: 4/5

Em

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

WOW I loved Moon Called and I wish I could read the next book in Mercy’s series immediately.

Here it’s the official cover but I must say that I could never picture Mercedes Thompson wearing such an item, I would have appreciated something less sensual and more “Would You Do Me a Favor and Fetch that Hammer?”

From Goodreads:

Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they’ll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they’ll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I’m not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too.
Mercy Thompson’s sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf.  She’s tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.  But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself … and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble

I mentioned before how much I dislike vampires, it’s now crystal clear that I instead care deeply for all kind shapeshifters (although vampires were ok in here).

Moon Called makes you feel part of a fictional world that might be on paper but after a few pages starts feeling very real. Briggs creates a strong heroine, her name is Mercedes Thompson aka Mercy, she is a “walker” and can shift into a feisty coyote, which she does quite often.

Mercy fixes cars for living, that’s right, she is a mechanic, an excellent one, as a general rule she minds her own business … at least she tries.

Mercy was raised among the Marrok, the most powerful pack of werewolves in North America, she now lives in Washington close to Adam Hauptman, the local Alpha, Adam’s wolves are the Columbia Basin Pack. Adam is a control freak, you can’t really choose your neighbour,  can you? Besides Mercy knows better than antagonizing a dominant werewolf.

Moon Called is a character driven adventure, it’s all about getting to know Mercy, a girl who is not afraid of getting her hands dirty, an independent creature who has no obligation to obey Pack’s rules, for all her toughness Mercy has a big heart, when Adam’s life is threatened and his daughter Jess is kidnapped, Mercy springs into action and her help proves to be crucial.

What I really liked about this story is the way it carefully details uses & rituals that occur among werewolves’ society, we all agree it’s NOT REAL but by setting clear rules Briggs ensures consistency and credibility to the story. By the end of the book I had a solid grasp of Mercy’s world.

The actual plot starts with the right pace but towards the end it becomes sloppy, the good characters are great but the villain gave a very poor performance (we all know how important a good villain is) and I was honestly confused, I don’t think he/she (I won’t say) has been enforced  with solid motivations.

Overall I can’t wait to see more. Romance doesn’t play a major role (there is hardly any romance) but Mercy and Adam have great chemistry, I am sure there is more to come.

Other reviews:

Sarah’s Book reviews

Renee’s Book Addiction

The Infinite Shelf

Aelia Reads

plus I was greatly encouraged by Angie on Angieville and Carla on The Crooked Shelf.

My grade: 4/5

Em

The Summer I turned pretty by Jenny Han

The Summer I turned pretty has been around for a while but it has one of those “not-so-catchy” titles and the one I got from the bookshop has an awful cover, this one I admit is pretty:

Plus I recently read and disliked The Boys next door by Jennifer Echols and I was thinking not another silly story about summer romances … don’t get me wrong I am all for summer romances but I prefer them in real life than on paper (while college  I prefer it on paper that in real life).

Then I stumbled into this review by Kay and I was intrigued. I don’t know why it took me so long to read The Summer I turned pretty, I found it refreshing, well written and utterly enjoyable.

From GoodReads:

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer — they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

It’s a character driven story told from Belly’s prospective, I found Belly’s voice honest and realistic. While reading this book I found myself remembering the excitement I experienced every time my family was driving into our holiday camping.

I spent my summer vacation in the very same place for 18 years and I can’t help smiling remembering the feeling of belonging to a different community for a few weeks every year, the knowledge that your body has changed and something it’s bound to happen (I shared my first kiss there), the realization of being pretty.

What I really liked about this story:

* the style , Jenny Han is a very talented author and I appreciate the way she keeps things straight and simple, there aren’t long description or annoying diversions but through dialogues and observations Han manages to build real three-dimensional characters;

* the relationship between Belly and her brother Steven. I have an older brother and I found Steven very believable,  you can’t trust older brother to not making embarrassing comments, older brothers have to speak up their mind especially when hanging out with  hot friends;

* the force of a crush. Belly is 15 and she has a crush on Conrad, a very powerful one. I don’t know if Conrad is worth it but I guess I’ll find out in the following books;

* there is no triangle, not really;

What I didn’t like is the fact that Savannah (Conrad and Jeremiah’s mother) is very sick, I wish it did not have to go like that.  As I stated before I have a problem with ya books that try to deal with issues like cancer, so I can either pretend that there wasn’t a mother terminally ill with cancer in the summer house and keep liking those characters or I can think about what really happens when there is a mother who is terminally ill with cancer,  this changes everything, you couldn’t possibly turn pretty in a summer like that.

I choose the first option.

Other opinions:

Steph Su Reads

The Crooked Shelf

My grade: 4/5

Em

My Soviet Kitchen by Amy Spurling

I received a free copy of My Soviet Kitchen , as soon as I opened the package I was intrigued because I found a book, a small compendium guide and a tiny bottle of vodka (a welcome addiction in my cabinet).

From Goodreads:

Memory loss, homo sovieticus, and a wandering phD student. This is Neo-chick lit. with a darker side, a vodka twist and a generous slice of post-Soviet living. It’s 1994 and English Ph.D student, Ivy Stone, wakes up in a Moscow flat with a hangover and a vague sense of unease…
Unable to remember what she did last night or why there is a cryptic Post-It note on her fridge, she begins an emotional, alcohol-fuelled journey via an Uzbek wedding, an Estonian sauna, and a Georgian serenade. What dark past haunts her new Russian man? And will she ever find the author of the mystery Post-It note?

Although I am not sure that we could label this as chick lit I found this novel very interesting, it’s not overly romantic, it’s not that funny, I couldn’t really relate to Ivy Stone and I found her relationship with K.K. as cold as Ivy’s empty sovietic fridge but it’s intriguing, ironic, witty:

“Previous love history: teenage fumblings in the dark followed by a couple of relationship with academia types. The first was volatile soul-searching and state of the nation talks with a classicist, which got pointless after a while; the second was a more predictable biologist, but he was the type that Russians call ‘stiller than water and lower than grass’, i.e. insignificant and small, and we became like Grandma and Grandpa about sixty years too early“

Plus I know nothing about Russia , Uzbekistan and Georgia but after reading this I am considering a trip in this mysterious and resourceful land.

Each chapter starts with a catchy title (“They Keep secrets” “Conversation with a maniac” “A slap in the face”…)  and a food reference like a russian recipe or just an observation, there are pictures, illustrations , a compendium guide and lots of booze (gosh at some points I experienced a literary induced  hangover).

Spurling manages to build a story that also revolves around Vladimir Mayakovsky‘s personal life (it focuses on Mayakovsky’s relationship with Lilya Brik) although I must admit that the storyline is not exactly fluid.

The ending wasn’t exactly a surprise but my issue with  this book revolves around characters, Ivy is an enjoyable character but doesn’t really build relationships with other characters and somehow I never get attached to her or any other character in the story.

It’s not what I would define a heart-warming novel, it’s not exactly swoon-worthy material but I highly recommend reading this because it’s very peculiar in a good way and you might learn a few things on the way.

Other reviews:

West End Extra

Novel Insights

My grade: 3,5/5

Em

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

Yesterday I attended the gay pride in Dublin, Oh Boy It was great fun, a huge party!

The book that it’s on my mind right now it’s Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, this novel was originally  published in 1989 and it’s the first in the Dangerous Angels series (there are four more books in this series).

Weetzie Bat describes gay marriage, children out of wedlock, abortion, common-law marriage and the AIDS epidemic, the story is set in an almost dream-like version of Los Angeles, referred to as Shangri-L.A., in an indefinite time period.

Weetzie is a bleach blonde punk pixie who is looking for love, she becomes BFF with Dirk and sort of falls in love with him, Dirk is gay, owns a black mohawk and a sweet red 55 Pontiac named Jimmy.

When Dirk’s grandma dies leaving him her bungalow in Hollywood , Weetzie and Dirk start living together while they keep looking for their perfect ducks until they find them. Weetzie falls in love with a movie maker,My Secret Agent Lover Man, Dirk falls in love with Duck.
“Any love that is love is right” A new family is born.

The story is all funky details and pop culture, it’s glamorous and surreal, it’s an urban fairytale that made me smile and gave me a mild headache, interesting because of its very peculiar style and also because it deals with controversial  issues:

* deception & forgiveness: Weetzie wants a baby but  My Secret Agent Lover Man doesn’t want one, I must admit that the way Weetzie deceits her lover really bothered me and I found her character less likeable precisely because of her behaviour on the matter;

* definition of family: Weetzie’s traditional family is broken, her parents’ divorce caused her pain and unhappiness, above everything else Weetzie is looking for happiness and you can only be happy if you are surrounded by love, when Weetzie’s time comes she creates a “non conventional” family that proves to work better than her traditional one;

* homosexuality;

* death and disease (aids);

* drugs and substance abuse;

As charming as this short, fast-paced story is I would put a “handle with care” disclaimer on the cover, what I mean is that it requires some post-debate because it deals with a crucial concept such as the definition of family itself.

Family it’s not only about personal choices but it’s about making choices that will necessarily affect other people life, either wholeheartedly agree or wholeheartedly disagree with Weetzie Bat would be wrong from a reader’s prospective, you might reach a full agreement or disagreement but stop and THINK ABOUT IT.

The Soundtrack (chosen by Francesca Lia Block):

X – Los Angeles
Ladies of the Canyon – Joni Mitchell
Iggy Pop – Lust for Life
Winter – Tori Amos
Wild World – Cat Stevens
Dancing Barefoot – Patti Smith
Free Falling – Tom Petty
Electricity – OMD
Wild Thing – The Troggs
Real Wild One – Iggy Pop
Secret Agent Man – Agent Orange
I want your hands on me – Sinead O Connor
Emperor’s New Clothes – sinead O’ Connor
Thank you – Alanis Morisette
Breathe me – Sia
Think pink – the fabulous poodles

My grade: 4/5

Em

Secret Society Girl (Secret Society Girl 1)by Diana Peterfreund

I hereby confess I was expecting Secret Society Girl (Secret Society Girl) to be good but not so freakishly good,   here I am desperately waiting for Secret Society Girl 2 – Under the Rose to be shipped at my door (carefully avoiding spoilers).

From Goodreads:

Secret Society Girl takes us into the heart of the Ivy League’s ultraecxlusive secret societies when a young woman is invited to join as one of their first female members.
Elite Eli University junior Amy Haskel never expected to be tapped into Rose & Grave, the country’s most powerful—and notorious—secret society. She isn’t rich, politically connected, or…well, male.
So when Amy receives the distinctive black-lined invitation with the Rose & Grave seal, she’s blown away. Could they really mean her?

I know nothing of secret societies or Ivy League Us colleges and I found the whole secret societies’ rituals a bit absurd but Diana  Peterfreund could have written about everything and it would have worked for me.

This is a story with zero paranormal activity and yet there is mystery.

It’s that kind of YA that it’s perfect for a twenty something,  we have a smart heroine like Amy Haskel who is obviously over some of the typical young teen issues  (I can’t take no more whining), an intelligent high-achiever girl who values friendship and struggles over making the right choice when it comes to friendship, love & secret societies (of course).

Amy is one of the smartest, most compelling heroine I ever came across to.

What does Amy have to deal with?

* War and Peace by Tolstoy (a book I actually loved but Amy is not really into russian literature);

* being tapped by the oldest, most powerful secret society in the world and then being almost discarded by the previously mentioned society based on the crime of  being a girl;

* getting on with her life  in a college where ambition is the new black;

* old friends and new friends aka Lydia and hottie Malcolm Cabot:

“I looked up to see Malcolm Cabot standing over my table. A senior, a popular party boy, and the son of a state governor, Malcolm Cabot and I didn‘t run in the same social circles. My friends stocked up on popcorn and had Sex and the City marathons, while his crowd liked to drive down to ―The City for marathon sex weekends”

* new enemies like Poe:

“I‘m sorry, the jerk said. His head was bowed as if in contrition, but the position just made him look like he was doing that evil looking-at-me-through-his-eyebrows thing so popular on horror movie posters. ―Can we start again? He stuck out his hand. ―I‘m Poe”

* her more-than-a-friendship-not-yet-a-relationship with Brandon:

“one of those true geniuses that dotted the campus population, the kind that could compose concertos on breaks from discovering the cure for cancer. His raison d‘être was applied math, but he spared enough time to fit in his knack for writing appallingly good short stories, and to compete with me for magazine editorships (I‘d only just barely beat him out for this one). No scrambling for internships or resume stuffers for Brandon. He just went around being quietly brilliant, unapologetically dorky, and universally well liked” (isn’t this whole paragraph brilliant?)

a guy who is a dream but I have that well know feeling that yeah Brandon is perfect but lacks that certain something (I hate that feeling, it always brings troubles);

* George Harrison Prescott, a very attractive guy Amy should really stay away from:

“George Harrison Prescott was not only the most beautiful man in my class in Prescott College (and no, that‘s not a coincidence about the names), he was also a Player with a capital ―P”

Diana Peterfreund’s writing reminds me of Megan McCafferty (there is no Marcus Flutie but one of those boys is bound to have a special place in Amy’s heart, I second Brandon but he sounds a bit too safe).

A second opinion:

The Book Smugglers (this review it’s awesome)

Me and My Books

My grade: 4/5

Em