Reading at Dawn - Book Review Blog

Another book read on the nook. I did choose this one on my own because the title intrigued me and I was entertained by the novel. It didn't take me long to read it either.

About the book: 17-year-old Jen decides one day, out of boredom that she's going to make a bet with her friends. That bet is that she will turn one of the school geeks, Trevor, bad. The prize? A lip-piercing to help her make her goal of only staying one year per foster family. But she soon finds herself in Trevor's world of sci-fi movies, charity work and family outings. As the bet becomes less important, Jen must face her past, figure out if she could ever belong with a geek boy and whether the plan to leave the new foster family is what she really wants.



Does the plot sound a little familiar? Not the whole plot, of course, but "the bet" is a plot that has been used before. The movie, She's All That, comes to mind in particular but it's not the only one. And this book does follow some of that plot line, so certain points will be expected but there is more to it than just the bet.



Story:
The story at first I thought would be a little too much about the bet but soon the author provided depth with the main character. At first it was a little rough because page one, the first lines in fact, is the bet. So, we don't know anything about the character except she plans to turn a boy bad in order to get her lip re-pierced, which comes off as a shallow reason but reading past that will show that the book has a deeper storyline than just that. I do wish more of the geek activities were shown. There is a lot of talk about the geeky movies they watch and she starts to love in dialogue but we don't see it except once and even then that time shows the geek boy she's trying to turn isn't all that geeky. I haven't read too many stories yet dealing with foster care and I think that part really did add depth to the novel.


Characters:
The main character is a little hard to feel sympathy for at first. Because we start at once with the bet, it does make her seem not like a nice character. But in the middle of the novel, I really felt for her and at one point in the story she almost goes too far the other way and becomes so mopey that it became hard again. But at the same time, it brought me in as her friend where I wanted to tell her snap out of it. So that works. The geek is a super polite really nice guy but... not very geeky. I wish he had been a little more geeky. I may be biased because I've bowled in leagues since I was 5 (family owns the bowling alley) so I don't think that's a geek thing to do but I'm at least a geek if not close to a nerd anyways. But I expected to see a little more geekiness from him. And having Trevor have an athletes body with a six-pack, disappointed me a little. I know, I'm weird and should consider it a step from the stereotype and I'm not saying he has to be very out of shape or anything, just no six-pack. I rolled my eyes at that. But he was a really nice guy and I like nice guys who actually get to have love in a story.


Overall:
May not be competing with classics but I found this book entertaining. And yes, I even got a little emotional near the end even though I knew some of the plot points that were going to happen well in advance. If looking for a fun read, this might be a good book to check out.