Novel Review: the Hookup Artist by Tucker Shaw

Rating (Out of 5): ~2 (maybe 2.5)

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publish Date: January, 2006

Spoilers?: Yes, the ending.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Powells. (Out-of-Print)

Goodreads Synopsis:

"In all my years of matchmaking it had taken me until then to realize: The trick was not to hope. Not for myself, anyway. I'd save my hope for the people I set up."

Lucas is a genius matchmaker, a hook-up artist, and everyone at Thomas Jefferson High School seems to need his expertise. When it comes to finding his own true love, things aren't so easy. He's had his heart broken and the prospects aren't promising.

But Lucas has bigger worries -- his best friend, Cate, has just been dumped, and he has to find her new Mr. Right. And right on schedule, a new guy shows up at TJHS. Derek is friendly, athletic, and the hottie of the century. As the matchmaker tries to work his magic, it seems like Derek is flirting with Lucas more than with Cate. Which makes everyone wonder -- who is Derek interested in, anyway?

Review:

I was expecting to like this more. I found it, very cheap, at a (somewhat) local bookstore, thought it sounded interesting, and got it. Given that the main character is a gay boy, and the not-totally original idea, I thought that it would add a little twist. And, in a way, it did, I suppose. Also, I found out after buying it, that I had read (and reviewed) another book by this author, which I enjoyed. That made it seem even better. And then I started it and wasn’t so happy.

Firstly, the beginning bits of the book aren’t very interesting. It just didn’t keep my attention very well. Then I pushed through, and it got better. And then it was just… eh, mostly.

Lucas, the main character, is a hookup artist. He’s recently decided to give up on his own love life, and keep helping other people. One of his friends, Sonja, tends to fool around with lots of boys. Sonja and Lucas also tended to joke around a lot, somewhat crudely, but I just don’t think it was pulled off very well. It was probably for comedy relief or something, but it just didn’t sound as natural as it should have. And their other friend, Cate, who doesn’t seem to care too much about boys, but they’re both trying to fix her up with the new boy in school, because they think that’s a good way to help her get over her previous boyfriend.

I think my biggest problem with this book is how centered it was on everyone needing a boyfriend/girlfriend. I guess I should have seen it coming, but it was so pushy. Sonja is always looking at guys, Lucas is trying not to but also pushing his friends toward certain guys. Cate doesn’t want a boyfriend, but then does want the new guy, and then is mad at her friends because of something they did. I just… I don’t know. I wanted someone to think that, hey, they can be fine on their own, too. They don’t have to be in a relationship. But no one ever really thought of that.

Also, there was quite a bit of crude language, and some mentions of sluts, and wanting men to change for the girl, that was all rather annoying and eye-rolling at times. This quote, for instance: "'I don't know. I just figured that since we had soccer in common, maybe he'd change. For me.'" I just don't understand that reasoning, and it almost pisses me off, by a lot.

Slut-shaming stuff would probably offend other people more than me, as I just found it annoying. The boy issue, as I mentioned above, also really annoyed me in how it was handled. And the some of the crude language just didn't seem necessary or flow very well, and I'm not really the type of person who gets offended or bothered by much crudeness or cussing. Also, the gay issue was handled rather badly a couple of times, in ways to hurt the protagonist and in the heat of the moment, but those really got on nerves. Also, I want to make it clear that I'm pretty sure it was solely the characters who were being jerks in those moments, and had nothing to do with the authors thoughts or anything.

One of my main reasons for keeping reading, I think, is that I wanted to know for sure how it was going to end. Because it was either going to end with everyone happy in a relationship or no one. And I guess I have to give it another half star because it ended in the latter. Only, none of them seemed particularly happy with that. And I didn’t really believe that everything should be fixed so easily.

I mean, both Cate and Lucas were in the wrong.  I don’t really think anything got resolved with Derek (the new guy). I guess how things ended with Julian (Cate’s brother, who was probably my favorite character) were okay, but I’m not totally satisfied with it. I’m just… not really satisfied with any of it, I guess.

I liked Julian. Sonja is probably second on my list, although I don’t think I got to know her enough. I found what was, or could have, been happening with her and this Alex guy could have been nice, but nothing there was really shown to have blossomed. I didn’t really like Cate. At points I thought Lucas was alright, but then he did something dumb, and it was just... dumb and he shouldn’t have done it and I don’t think he really redeemed himself. Derek was okay, but I don’t think what he was doing was really explained in any way.

I wanted to like this book. A lot more than I did. But I didn’t really like it at all. I’m left feeling rather unsatisfied. Most of the characters weren’t very good, the ending was iffy, the writing wasn’t very good or capturing at all. I’m just… I don’t know. Done with this book, I guess.

The Cover:  

This cover is horrible. Absolutely horrible. The book is out of print, and it's from several years ago, which makes sense for why it hasn't gotten a new one, but still. The cover looks more like it should be from the '90's. And while I wouldn't want anyone to see me with it, I also just generally don't want it to be on the front of my copy.

Novel Review: The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Penguin (Speak)

Spoilers?: No.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Pretty in Pink meets Anna and the French Kiss in this charming romantic comedy

Ella is nearly invisible at the Willing School, and that's just fine by her. She's got her friends - the fabulous Frankie and their sweet cohort Sadie. She's got her art - and her idol, the unappreciated 19th-century painter Edward Willing. Still, it's hard being a nobody and having a crush on the biggest somebody in the school: Alex Bainbridge. Especially when he is your French tutor, and lessons have started becoming, well, certainly more interesting than French ever has been before. But can the invisible girl actually end up with a happily ever after with the golden boy, when no one even knows they're dating? And is Ella going to dare to be that girl?

Available on Amazon.

Review:

I’m kind of unsure about this book, including what to say about it. I liked it. I think I expected something a bit different, something more cliché and light hearted (not that this wasn’t either of those things, but more in the cheesy direction than this one took). It was a little bit mediocre, I don’t feel as strongly about it as I would have liked, but I still rather enjoyed it, and there were some things that really stand out to me.

I don’t mind Ella, the main character, too much. She’s definitely not one of my favorites, and she did a couple of not-so-smart things (particularly to her friends), and I think she should be a bit more outspoken or not so hesitant or self-conscious, but I don’t dislike her. She has her problems, some to do with getting close to Alex and some to do with her self-confidence, the origin of which I will keep a secret, and they were actually kind of worked through. And the book ended with her set on continuing to work through them, which was good.

I don’t have very strong feelings for Alex, the love interest, at all. He was sweet, I guess; he just doesn’t stand out to me, but I know that Ella likes him and whatever and I'm okay with that.

But Edward Willing. My god, is he great. Firstly, I just have to give props to Jensen for creating a historical character with an actual historical history that makes you think he's actually real, who Ella obsesses over and talks to in her head, because that is hard to do. And she did a fantastic job. I mean, Ella loves him and studies him and has created a fictional him in her head, and she’s sometimes maybe wrong and she learns that, and it was just so great. Edward was, seriously, my favorite part of this book. I mean, I liked the romantic scenes between Ella and Alex, and I liked her interactions between her and her friends, and her family (both of which I will talk about in a moment), but Edward is what really stands out to me.

Now, her family (I know, that didn’t take long). Her family is, maybe a little overbearing?, but really sweet and fun. They own an Italian restaurant, where her family all work, and those scenes were usually pretty fun to read. As was the scenes with her friends. I liked her friends, and was not happy with what Ella did to them, it was dumb. But it got better, I suppose.

So, I did enjoy this book, but it was just a bit above mediocre. I do still want to read Jensen’s other book, so hopefully I’ll like that one more.

P.S.: I just want to say that, while the cover may be mildly embarrassing, I do find it quite adorable. Also, the comparison in the synopsis, about it being like Anna and the French Kiss, is rather big shoes to fill, comparing to how much I liked that book, and that this book did not make it. I don't know about Pretty in Pink, though, as I've never seen it.