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Sunday, January 1, 2012

Review: Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do in Europe by Jane Harrington

Rating (Out of 5): 3
Publisher: Darby Creek Publishing
Goodreads Synopsis:

Brady is going to Europe—with her mother! It's a family coming-of-age tradition, so there's no way out of it. To make the trip more interesting, Brady's best gal pal, Delia, has written four things Brady must do while she's in Europe—and Delia used permanent marker so Brady can't chicken out. Brady would never do these things without some encouragement (AKA pressure) from Delia.

Review:
This was alright, but I wasn't expecting it to be amazing. I got it from a used bookstore, cheap, because it sounded like it could be a fun, quick read. And because I had to finish my 100 books for the year, and was looking for something quick like this.
So, it's about Brady, who is going on this cruise with her mother in Europe, and who's best friend decided to write out instructions on her hand for her to follow in Europe.
It's written in letter format, as Brady writes the letters in detail of what has happened to her to her friend Delia. Since it's in letter format, it's a bit like it would be if a person were writing a message online. Not in chat speak, but with all caps for emphasis and lots of exclamation points, and with her talking to Delia. This did bother me a little bit, but that kind of writing bothers me on a normal basis, so it took some getting use to. I tried not letting it bother me, since it is in letters, but it still did some.
The story was alright. Brady is dealing with her mother, who is leading her around to visit everything as they come to different cities, and she's a very shy person but is supposed to follow these rules her friend set. Her friend wants her to wear a bikini in public, which she doesn't want to do, and meet a euro hottie (or, more specifically, a code-red euro-hottie. I don't really know what the code-red is, exactly. Code-yellow, I think, was also mentioned. I don't know what that means, either. I got the gist of it, but it isn't explained [which it shouldn't be, since it's in a letter to Delia, who already knows what it means], so is that something that I just missed the memo on?). But Brady mostly follows the rules. She also makes some friends, who push her to complete the list, and who she also gets close to.
And I do like her friends. There's a southern boy, two girls and another boy from different countries, and another boy who speaks Klingon (this is cool, but I've never seen any Star Trek. I should, though, right?) The two girls she gets pretty close with, and I liked them. The southern boy is pretty cute, and the Klingon guy seems sweet. Although they apparently are going to be seeing each other again, but it just seemed to work out too well, that I didn't believe it.
I didn't particularly feel much for Brady, though, and I didn't get a big idea of who Delia is. I felt like it might have been better if there were letter exchanged back and forth between the two, like if Delia was supposed to do something as well, instead it just being one-way. Although I couldn't really imagine Brady telling Delia to do something... But still.
It also made me interested in finding out more about her family, particularly her sister that's always at the computer, but I'm partial to computer geeks. I didn't get much of an impression of her mother, though. Brady makes it seem like she's crazy, but I didn't really think so.
The story wasn't all that exciting, but it wasn't boring. It didn't have me clutching the book in anticipation for the next bit, but I didn't particularly want to put it down. It was easy to keep reading, but it didn't really leave an outstanding impression.
And the ending was pretty good. It leaves you thinking that things are going to work out alright, maybe even pretty well.
So, it was mostly just alright.

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