Something, Maybe

Reader reviewed by Alex

Something, Maybe is about a girl, Hannah, who's trying to navigate the rocky waters of love while dealing with really embarrasing parents. Her dad is this 70 something guy who is the leader of this website, tv show, whatnot, like Playboy. He's super rich but Hannah moves away from him with her mom to a different city. Her mom makes a living as a woman over the intenet.

So Hannah's "in love" with a boy, a coworker named Josh, who's one of those soulful types, into saving the envirornement, writing poetry, all that jazz. But Finn, another coworker is always bugging Hannah. So really, what's a girl to do?

I did like this book. And I love Elizabeth Scott. Both Lauren and I agree that Perfect You is the best, although Bloom comes a close second for me. Lauren didn't read Bloom since her name is the name of the protagonist and her brother's name is the name of the love interest. XD Such a coincidence, it's absolutely hilarious. I get such a laugh out of it.

Anyway, Something, Maybe was incredibly cute and sweet and adorable and all those nice adjectives that I love to use. It's a light, warm and happy feeling read. It's interesting and nice, but there's nothing groundbreaking. Love triangls populate almost every romance novel. And well, parents are always problems. Although, yeah, I have to admit, Hannah does have embarrasing parents. Mostly her father. Her mother isn't really so bad, she does what she does (which is wearing very minimal clothing for a legion of drooling men on the internet), but she's good and kind. Her father, on the other hand, is 72 years old and such a jerk. I'm not too sure jerk is the right word, but her father is definitely not... suited to be father I guess. He should be a grandfather at his age. I just find it extremely icky to think of Hannah's mom at age 21 and Jackson, her dad, in his 50s, together. Just... eew.

I found that probably, I'd describe most scenes in Something, Maybe as both corny and sweet. It just depends on if the scene's more corny than sweet, or vice-versa. Hannah's attempted heart to hearts with her dad Jackson are more corny than sweet, but I'm going to say that most interactions between Hannah and Finn are sweet rather than corny.

Let's see... the characters now. Hannah, I wasn't too fond of. I found her wishywashy with her crush on Josh. And the fact that she thought she was soulmates with him was just so... stupid. I could say naive but really, I think stupid fits Hannah more. I do think she was brave and strong at times, but most, she just kind of annoyed me. And she was so oblivious to Finn, it hurt. It truly did. I sometimes wanted to shake her to make Hannah open her eyes somehow to Finn. Or at least accept some of her feelings. On the topic of Finn... drroool. XD I adore Finn. He's hands down my favourite character in this novel. He's very... boy, with some disgusting eating habits, but he's not a jerk, even though he tends to be surrounded by them (friends, in other words). He blushes constantly, and rambles. A lot. This must mean me and him are soul mates right? We both ramble waay too much. XD

If you just read quickly through this book, it's like, oh, yay, romance. Dysfunctional family, uh huh. Seen this, read this, whatever. But get closer, and it really is good. It's layered, and the character's aren't always cardboard cutout stereotypes. I got sucked in while reading the second half of the book. Not superduper sucked in, omg, can't put this down, but sucked in nonetheless, and was able to finish this in a day. Granted, it's not a long book but... whatever. I still get koodos.

While I did get a little annoyed by the predictableness of this book, it's still a nice read. Nothing amazing, nothing new, but nice.

Reader reviewed by Elise

As far as ChickLit goes, this was pretty good. As a teenager myself, I
find that many of the protagonists in these kinds of novels are
troubled in one way or another -- they smoke, they drink, they have sex
-- and my experience is that not every single teenager is like that.
This book, thankfully, proves this. Our heroine, though she comes from
a slightly questionable background, is somewhat normal and has ethics.
I liked that about her. She had a normal problem, social anxiety and
embarassment, that many, many of these readers can relate to. A lot of
the plot twists were surprising and juicy, though overall I found the
book predictable. And though I know it isn't the author who writes
this, the jacket summary kind of gave it away for me. The mention of
Finn and the cryptic final sentence, "what she wants may not be what
she needs" sort of gives the reader an idea of the whole plotline
before we've even passed the title page. However, the writing is pretty
well-done and overall, I think it was a worthwhile read.

Reader reviewed by stephanie