Being Friends with Boys

Being Friends With Boys
By Terra Elan McVoy

When Charlotte’s sister Jilly leaves for college and her best friend Lish dumps her to hang with the volleyball team, Charlotte does not have a lot of girlfriends.   She does , however, enjoy an easy relationship with the boys in the all boy band, Sad Jackal.  That all starts to change when Trip quits the band, and Charlotte, who has always served as the songwriter and the behind-the-scenes girl, is asked to sing.  Oliver, the leader of the band, seems jealous of Charlotte’s new fame and attention when she sings at the homecoming dance.  One of the new members, Fabian, seems to be flirting with Charlotte and asking her out secretly.  Charlotte is heartbroken when Trip, who she expected to remain friendly with after his departure from the band, makes new friends, takes a new girlfriend, and stops returning Charlotte’s texts.   And if frustrations with the boys from the band weren’t enough, Charlotte also makes friends with Benji McLaughlin, a boy with a less than stellar reputation at school, but one who seems to be a good friend and possibly more.  When the attention that Charlotte receives for her singing leads to an offer to sing with a girl band, it seems like the perfect solution at first.  Will Charlotte abandon Sad Jackal or will she find a way to remain friends with the boys?

This novel, the first I’ve read by Terra Elan McVoy, is an easy read.  It would appeal to girls who like music, girls who have many friends who are boys, or any girl looking for a romance read because, as you can guess, Charlotte won’t remain “just friends” with all of the boys.

Genre:  Realistic fiction, Romance    

Reviewed by:  Lauren Sprouse (librarian)

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesic

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

By Gabrielle Zevin

Naomi is about to begin her junior year in high school as the editor-in-chief of the yearbook when she takes a tumble down the exterior stairs to the school, hitting her head but saving the yearbook camera.  She is rescued by a new boy, James, who takes her to the hospital.  When Naomi wakes up she has amnesia.  She doesn’t remember much of anything since 6^th grade, which was the year her parents got divorced.  She doesn’t remember that her mother is remarried and that she has a half-sister.  She doesn’t remember her best friend and co-editor-in-chief of the yearbook, Will.  She doesn’t remember her boyfriend, Ace.  And now there is a new boy in her life, James.  She does remember that she is mad at her mother, but she is unclear about the details.  Naomi reinvents herself during this year, until the memories come flooding back.  Then she must move on with her life.  She must decide whether she wants to have a relationship with her mother and which boy she wants to keep in her life.  As in all of Gabrielle Zevin’s books, the narrator, Naomi, is entertaining and likeable.  Readers will be pulled into her journey of rediscovery. 

Genre:  Realistic fiction, Romance

Reviewed by:  Lauren Sprouse, librarian

Just One Day

Just One Day
by Gayle Foreman

If you were a fan of If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Foreman, I can’t in good conscience tell you that you will enjoy her newest book, Just One Day.  It isn’t terrible, but it just isn’t in the same league as her first two books.

Allyson Healey has led a charmed life.  She graduates from high school never having had to have a job, in the fall she is attending a private college on her parent’s dime, and she is in England when the story begins, finishing up a summer tour of Europe, also a gift from her parents.  Just as she is about to join her group to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform Hamlet, she and her lifelong friend Melanie meet some actors from a group called Guerilla Will.  This group is performing Twelfth Night that same evening.  They advertise themselves as doing “Shakespeare without borders.  Shakespeare for the masses.  Shakespeare for free.  Shakespeare for all.”   But what really attracts Melanie and Allyson is the cute boy who is part of the company.   They decide to ditch the RSC in favor of seeing this group perform instead.  After the performance Allyson meets the cute boy, Willem, who played the part of Sebastian.   Even though her tour of Europe is about over, and she should be spending her last two days in London, Willem talks her into taking the train to Paris with him.  This is very out of character for Allyson, who hasn’t even enjoyed her time in Europe and is definitely a rule follower and not someone who would normally hop a train to a foreign country with a boy she just met.   In Paris, Allyson starts to reinvent herself as Lulu, who is open to trying new things and having new experiences.  She also starts to fall in love with Willem, even though she knows they will only have one day together and most likely never see each other again.  As they travel through Paris, Allyson (Lulu) learns little of Willem’s past.  He has been travelling for two years.  He is from Amsterdam, and he seems to have a lot of girlfriends.  Everywhere Willem takes Allyson, he seems to know lots of girls, but Allyson is still taken with him.  After she spends the night with him, she awakes to see that he has abandoned her and taken with him her very expensive watch that was a graduation gift from her parents.  Allyson is devastated.  She returns home and begins college, but she can’t help feeling that she lost some of herself in Paris.  The rest of the book becomes a journey as Allyson tries to reinvent herself and discover who she really is apart from her parent’ s expectations.  Spoiler alert:  Willem does return to the story, and it is very clear by the end that there will be a sequel.  Also, by the end, I will say that the reader is very interested in the story.  This book doesn’t have the immediate pull for the reader the way that If I Stay and Where She Went do, but if you stick with it, I think you will still enjoy it.

Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Romance

Reviewer:  Lauren Sprouse, librarian

The Selection

The Selection

by Kiera Cass

The Selection is an amazing book.  Not to be cliche, but I felt like I was right there with America Singer, main character, the entire book. Kiera Cass is surrounded with talented writers writing the same sort of star-crossed lover themed books, but what set her apart for me is how relatable it was. She creates this triangle where America is at the top and has to choose between a prince or her young love. Everyone remembers their first love/crush, but they just don't know how close they are to meeting their prince.

Kaileigh Robertson

Genre:  Romance, Dystopian