Kira

I received a copy of this book for in exchange for an honest review. One of these days I'm going to learn my lesson and stop doing read-to-reviews because I'm always the bad guy *sigh*

This story written from the point-of-view of Sara, a 19-year-old who is trying to earn her diploma by attending a remedial academy and making up the classes she missed her senior year of high school. She is utterly and completely obsessed with rock god Tyler Vincent and spends her free time papering her walls with his face and drawing portraits of him. Her life's goal is to win a contest that will get her a full scholarship to a college five minutes from Tyler Vincent's house.

Dale is a 20-year-old musician who has just started at the academy and is instantly drawn to Sara. He looks eerily like Tyler Vincent and his up-and-coming band is working their way through the rounds for MTV's Battle of the Bands. He and Sara fall hard and fast for each other but her obsession with Tyler Vincent and the secrets they're both keeping threaten everything.

Here's what I liked about the book:

* Dale was incredibly sweet and likable and I have nothing but love for him

* the love scenes were well-written

* I liked the concept of a school made up of misfits who hadn't graduated highschool for one reason or another. I thought that was an interesting setting and wished there would have been more focus on this part of the story.

What I didn't like:

* Some of the scenes were way too long and made the story drag (the opening scene in the cafeteria, during which not much happened, took 6% of the book)

* Sara is constantly telling us what to infer from people's actions, rather than letting us see and decide for ourselves. That's one of my pet peeves.

* The characters seemed immature and their actions were frequently very juvenile. Sara in particular was really hard for me to understand or even like. I just didn't get what Dale really saw in her. Dale was charming, available, and adorable, and she wasted so much internal dialogue bemoaning the fact that she was emotionally cheating on Tyler Vincent by being attracted to Dale. Tyler Vincent, the rock god who has absolutely no clue she exists. Is she saving herself for him or something? That was just weird, especially considering Tyler Vincent is in his late 40's and is married with adult children. At one point she's talking to her best friend on the phone and says,

"He's a nice enough guy, I guess. But he's not Tyler Vincent." I reminded myself of that fact, touching Tyler's picture, one of my favorites taped to the wall next to my bed. This was the man I lived for, would die for. He filled my thoughts, my dreams. I had pinned all my hopes on him."

Seriously? You would die for him? You've pinned all your hopes on him? That seems a little extreme. Dale summed up what I was feeling about this when he said:

"Don't mind me. It's just the irony. I fall for a girl whose heart already belongs to some guy who's twice her age who she's never even met. You have to admit, it's probably the most bizarre threesome in history."

Preach it, Dale.

* The plot was super muddled, with most of it being pretty light and cutesy, and then abruptly taking a really dark turn in the last 10% and dumping all kinds of heavy spoilers that really should have been explored way earlier in the book. I thought her stepfather either should have been left out entirely, or that storyline should have had more emphasis, but it just didn't jive with the rest of the book.... at all. I should have been completely shocked because it all really came out of nowhere, but instead my reaction was "Whatever, are we done yet?"

I appreciate the opportunity to review this book but I did not enjoy the story or writing enough for me to recommend it.