Review: 52 Reasons to Hate My Father

Author: Jessica Brody


Genre: Romance, Chick Lit, Contemporary


Pages: 352


Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux


Date of Release: July 3, 2012


Rating: 10/10


Summary: Being America’s favorite heiress is a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.Lexington Larrabee has never to work a day in her life. After all, she’s the heiress to the multi-billion-dollar Larrabee Media empire. And heiresses are not supposed to work. But then again, they’re not supposed to crash brand new Mercedes convertibles into convenience stores on Sunset Blvd either.

Which is why, on Lexi’s eighteen birthday, her ever-absent, tycoon father decides to take a more proactive approach to her wayward life. Every week for the next year, she will have to take on a different low-wage job if she ever wants to receive her beloved trust fund. But if there’s anything worse than working as a maid, a dishwasher, and a fast-food restaurant employee, it’s dealing with Luke, the arrogant, albeit moderately attractive, college intern her father has assigned to keep tabs on her.

In a hilarious “comedy of heiress” about family, forgiveness, good intentions, and best of all, second chances, Lexi learns that love can be unconditional, money can be immaterial, and, regardless of age, everyone needs a little saving. And although she might have 52 reasons to hate her father, she only needs one reason to love him. -Goodreads

Review: Another funny, no HILARIOUS book I have read this summer. I loved how it was the spoiled-brat gets in trouble with daddy book. Because it always ends with the spoiled brat learning that she was wrong and there are better things in life than spending the cha-ching.

Lexington is so funny. Even though she is portrayed as the "spoiled-brat" she has the sense about what is right and what is wrong. And when she meets Luke, it's like BAM! There is so much electricity in between them, it's amazing how they didn't get together earlier. I also found it very hot that he was her bodyguard. I mean wouldn't you want a sexy bodyguard??? Anyways, I loved Luke's character. He was the typical guy who thought Lexi was a spoiled brat and he was better than her. Lexi thought likewise. In the end they went together like the moon and the sun. yum. Another thing that I thought was so adorable was that she helped him pick out clothes! If a guy you like has no fashion sense, that's how you make a move! Just go up to him and be like, "Who wanna go shopping together?" Do the hair twirling, it's cute. Also remember to bat your eyelashes. But not like your having a seizure or something. Flirting 101 brought to you by Sunshine!

Lexi and her dad have such a unique relationship. They love each other but they don't know how to express their emotions. Since Lexi's father was isolated from Lexi ever since his wife died they didn't establish a very good father-duaghter relationship. I guess it didn't help with him going around getting married. It was interesting following Lexi through her discovery of what really happened to her mom and why her father reacted to her car crash the way he did.

On that note, Lexi's dad is awesome. I wish my mom made me work a week at a different job every week. That sounds like fun. That element of the story really brings the book together. Every job she went to, Lexi learned something new and it rounded out her character. She saw herself and everyone in a new way and it made a better person. She saved her dad from making a mistake and got her relationship with her dad off the floor. On the plus side, she got Luke as her boyfriend! Even though, Lexi had to learn the horrible truth about her mother it brought things into light.

In the end, I was a mix of purple fuzzies*. I was sad to put the book down! So I suggest all of you out there that like hot bodygaurds to get this book. Yes, I'm looking at you. And since I absolutely loved every inch of this book I am putting three quotes below. Yes, THREE quotes.



 “Because apart we might be as different as night and day, black and white,
right and wrong, but together we create two sides of a whole.
Together we balance.”              


   “New languages are not something you can pick up overnight. They take time. Patience. The willingness to change the way you think about what you already know.”            


  “People can be so annoying sometimes. With all their stupid opinions and hidden agendas. But dogs? Dogs don’t have any agendas. They’re as honest and open and devoted as you can get. And that’s why they’ll always cheer you up. They’ll always love you. No matter how badly you screw up.”             

*Purple Fuzzies: Any feeling/emotion that makes you feel all gooey inside. Or if you say your sending purple fuzzies to someone you are sending them good wishes/prayers. My big sis and I say that we send purple fuzzies to each other a lot:)

                      
      

Review: The Opposite of Tidy

Author: Carrie Mac

Genre: YA, Contemporary


Pages: 361


Date of Release: April 10. 2012

Publisher: Razorbill

Rating: 10/10


Summary: How do you come clean when your life is a mess?

Fifteen-year-old Junie is barely coping. Her mother has started sleeping in the chair in front of the TV, and the house is so packed with junk, newspapers, cupboard organizers and other helpful items from the Shopping Channel that she can barely get in the front door. Her father is no help, since he’s always with That Woman. To top it off, she’s failing math.

So when Wade Jaffre, the hot new guy at school, offers her a ride home from school, it seems too good to be true. Junie surprises herself by accepting—and even talking! But as they approach her house, her parents are outside, screaming at each other. Junie doesn’t have to think twice about directing him on to her best friend Tabitha’s house, nor about continuing the charade of pretending she lives there.

Tabitha and her mother are understanding—and willing to go along, for the moment. But as the weeks go by, Junie’s lies start piling up and the opportunity to tell the truth seems to slip away. Until the day Junie’s world—and her mother’s—is literally turned inside out for the world to see, and Junie and her mother must face the consequences of her mother’s illness ... and the lies they both told to hide it. -Goodreads


Review: The summary does not do this book justice! This book is raw. I was cringing from parts in the book, because they were so RAW and REAL (alliteration, people!). Even so, this was a heck of a good book. I just finished it last night around 1:00am. That's why my eyes look like bruises today.

Junie's mother has a problem, a hoarding problem. There house is full of things that her mom buys through the television. I could imagine that being real, because there are people out there that do have this disorder. It was interesting break reading this book, because it didn't involve anything supernatural. Junie has a crush a on a really cute guy named Wade. Wade is the new guy in town and starts to notice Junie. One day, he offers Junie a ride. But as they near her house, Wade sees a divorced couple yelling in the middle of their front yard. Little does he know that they are Junie's parents and poor Junie is so embarrassed she lies and tells him to go to a house a block down.

This is the part where it gets cringy, like you know she is going to do something bad and there will be harsh consequences. She tells Wade that she lives in that house, but really it's her best friend's house. Junie gets Tabitha and her mom to go along with this lie. When Tabitha's mom tells Junie to fix he problem, she doesn't. She keeps lying to Wade and the lies just keep piling up. After everything is going so well in Junie's world of lies, it comes crashing down and her lies are spread out for the world to see... literally.

Every time I turned the next page, I kept thinking this is when the poo is going to hit the fan. I was into the book, that my heart sped up every time she told another lie. Though, that's why I enjoyed this book. It started to get really interesting at the end when the TV people come and expose Junie on live television. Whew, I tried to imagine what would happen if that were me and I think I would live my days in a remote cave. Seriously.

I thought the characters were really well developed. Carrie Mac made believe that I could have friends like that. If I had to choose a character to be, it would be Tabitha. It is wrong to lie and she tried to tell Junie that, but she wouldn't listen. Wade seem to have his own personality and wanted to have Junie in his life. I thought Junie was a little bit selfish and dumb when she thought it was okay to lie for "a little while." That is just not right. Junie's mom... a didn't like her one bit. Not because of her problem, but because she manipulates Junie. I mean seriously, are really going to make your fifteen year old daughter help you clean up piles of poo, pee, just plain sewage, because you don't want anyone in your house. I would have moved to the other side of the country. And every time Junie tried to reason with her, she would end up crying. I don't know how Junie put up with it.

The story line was wonderful. It didn't just explode together, it came part after part. Beginning, middle and end, just like they teach you in grade three.

I don't have anything else to say. I guess you have to read it to be blown away by it's awesomeness. A hundred high-fives to the author who made this astounding book. Whoo hoo!