Baby, Baby, Oh.

One of the books I was so happy to get from my wishlist was Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have). I don’t know if you guys do this or not, but I’ll see a book cover or read a blurb and get all excited about a book. Then, I finally get my hands on the book and I’m all, What? What was I thinking?

The cover guy looks like Justin Bieber and the plot is a mish-mash of Y.A. talking points. Parents who want to be your friend instead of a parent? Pressure to have sex? Bulimia/Exercise addiction? STD? Teen alcohol abuse? Oh, baby, it’s in there. Along with a dozen other clichés.

I don’t know what an author does that makes you care about a character. (If I did, I’d have the biggest mansion on writer’s row!) I’m a fan of characters with a viewpoint, even if it’s dramatically opposed to my own. Does a relatively blank character (like Bella in Twilight, sorry Gina) allow girls to put themselves into the story? If she’s not different from me, by being too much of anything, then maybe I’ll feel like she’s similar to me? April is a pretty blank slate, so maybe this book will be a runaway hit. I liked several of Sarah Mlynowski’s earlier books, but this one was a bust for me.

On the plus side, my stock pile has a whole bunch of Katie Fforde books in it, so I’m working my way through them. I just finished Living Dangerously and liked it a lot. Katie Fforde is like Meg Cabot, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Mauve Binchy for me. If they write a manual about auto repair, I will buy it, I will read it, and I give it 5 stars on Goodreads.