Helpful Score: 4
What a disappointment! I usually love Andersen's books with its unique characters and quirky banter. This book had neither of those things and I really had to force myself to finish it. Towards the end there I was skimreading a lot.
It started out really good with a cool premise. Jenny who is not a blood relative of Austin but pretty up grew up with the boy is trying to get custody of him after his grandparents' death. In comes deadbeat dad Jake, who also wants custody and will win it. So the only thing Jenny can do is the make the transition for Austin's eventual move away from their small town to NYC smoother.
So from Jenny's point of view it is completely heartbreaking and you would think Andersen would write about the turmoils of this emotional time for the three characters. Nup. Instead she wasted hundreds of pages on how much Jenny and Jake want each other but trying hard not to be together. On top of that there were so many false starts that by the time they did get together, it was anticlimatic.
I did like the developing relationship between Jake and his half-brother Max, who used to bully him as a child. That was at least interesting.
Overall I seriously think Andersen could have done a lot better and if not should have cut the book in half. It was painfully slow with nothing interesting happening (or Andersen didn't seem to want to spend time on anything interesting that came up). This book had a lot of potential but it just never came to fruition. Waste of time. Don't bother with it.
It started out really good with a cool premise. Jenny who is not a blood relative of Austin but pretty up grew up with the boy is trying to get custody of him after his grandparents' death. In comes deadbeat dad Jake, who also wants custody and will win it. So the only thing Jenny can do is the make the transition for Austin's eventual move away from their small town to NYC smoother.
So from Jenny's point of view it is completely heartbreaking and you would think Andersen would write about the turmoils of this emotional time for the three characters. Nup. Instead she wasted hundreds of pages on how much Jenny and Jake want each other but trying hard not to be together. On top of that there were so many false starts that by the time they did get together, it was anticlimatic.
I did like the developing relationship between Jake and his half-brother Max, who used to bully him as a child. That was at least interesting.
Overall I seriously think Andersen could have done a lot better and if not should have cut the book in half. It was painfully slow with nothing interesting happening (or Andersen didn't seem to want to spend time on anything interesting that came up). This book had a lot of potential but it just never came to fruition. Waste of time. Don't bother with it.
Not my favorite of her books but I really liked Austin's character. I hope the next story in the series is back to her usual standards.
I thought it was a good book,and I'm hoping some of the characters in the novel will get their own stories in future books.
