Novel Review: Kissing Brendan Callahan by Susan Amesse

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Genre: MG Contemporary

Publisher: Deborah Brodie Books (Roaring Brook Press)

Release Date: 2005

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Like many girls who read, Sarah wants to be a writer -- a best-selling author of romances. Her plan is to enter a local teen writing contest to be judged by romance writer Antonia DeMarco (author of Enraptured Thorns in My Heart) and win first place by dazzling Antonia with her passionate and soulful writing. What could go wrong? Mom won't let Sarah enter the contest, that's what. Then along comes Brendan Callahan, a rule-breaking boy she has never liked. Will Sarah let Brendan teach her to stand up for herself?

The Cover:

I am just extremely unimpressed with this cover. It's not eye-catching or nice to look at. The picture and the font just look amateurish. I do think that the picture represents an important symbol or scene in the book, and I'm annoyed with how it contrasts the title, but otherwise I don't care for it.

Review:

This was a pretty average, very middle grade, book.

First of all, I don’t like the title, at all. It’s emphasizing the romance, which is not the most important, or the most present, part of the book.

The age of the characters and their maturity level is definitely middle grade, but not in a bad way. It was overly angsty, but middle school like.

Sarah wants to be an author, and she has the potential. I do like that her trying for the contest wasn’t unrealistic, and the outcome of it made sense. I liked that her unreliability was shown and made her learn that she doesn’t know everything. The author that she meets drove me insane, though. She was a horrible person, a bad influence, and I hated how selfish she was, and that she didn’t really get a consequence for it.

I liked some of the messages and the way certain things were portrayed. I didn’t really care for the romance, or the humor of Brendan, as it was very elementary and not original at all, and he seemed pretty one-dimensional. Overall, it was a pretty average read for me, though. I’m not really in the age group for it anymore, though.