Monday, August 6, 2012

Review: The Boy Recession by Flynn Meaney


By: Flynn Meaney
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Genre/Age: YA Contemporary
Pages: 256
Source: ARC from Around the World ARC Tours

It’s all about supply and demand when a high school deals with the sudden exodus of male students.

The boy recession has hit Julius P. Heil High, and the remaining boys find that their stock is on the rise: With little competition, even the most unlikely guys have a good chance at making the team and getting the girl.

Guitar-strumming, class-skipping Hunter Fahrenbach never wanted to be a hot commodity, but the popular girls can’t help but notice his unconventional good looks. With a little work, he might even be boyfriend material.

But for down-to-earth Kelly Robbins, the boy recession is causing all sorts of problems. She has secretly liked her good friend Hunter for a while now, but how can she stand out in a crowd of overzealous Spandexers?

As if dating wasn’t hard enough without a four-to-one ratio!


I was immediately interested in reading The Boy Recession when I heard about it, mainly because my college had a similar male-female ratio (Okay, maybe not quite the same, but it sure felt like it sometimes!), and it sounded like a fun story that I could totally relate to. Having read it, I can say that I wasn’t really blown away, but it was sweet, cute story that I enjoyed reading.

My favorite thing about it was definitely the humor; there were several moments that had me smiling and giggling out loud. I loved the chapter headings in particular, taken from the school’s online newspaper. Some of my favorites:

“Popularity of Plaid Shorts Plummets as Preppies Flee Julius”
“Senior Girls Lobby to Take Over, Convert to Lounge Boys’ Bathroom in South Hallway”
“Cougars Among Us: Julius Juniors and Their Freshman Boy Toys”

The characters felt like SUCH typical teenagers: the boys weren’t drop-dead gorgeous and mysterious, they were juvenile and dumb and often pretty gross. Which isn’t what you always want to read about, of course, but it totally fit with this story. The stakes weren’t end-of-the-world high, everything was pretty chill, and everyone was just generally concerned with normal high school stuff, mainly whatever gossip was new in the dating scene. And there is a sweet, heartwarming happy ending that will for sure put a smile on your face.

A whole year passes in the book, and we generally just get flashes of scenes and hear about other things that happened in between chapters. This was a little jarring at first, but once I got used to it I enjoyed it. It made the book feel like a lot like a year of high school – when you look back you don’t remember every single day, but you remember the year in terms of the important events, those bigger moments when things changed – and I feel like that was really captured well with The Boy Recession.

This isn’t necessarily the kind of book that you can’t put down, that you’re dying to read every chance you get, but it’s a nice, easy read, and I’d recommend it for anyone looking to just chill out and head back to high school for a couple of hours.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Cover Reveal: Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally

I'm so excited that the cover of Miranda Kenneally's third book has been released! I loved both Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker (my review will be posted soon!), and I can't wait to read Things I Can't Forget.





I love the cover! It's gorgeous, and I'm a big fan of continuity in series and companion books, so I love how much all three of her covers compliment each other. (Not going to lie, part of me hopes that the title changes so that it matches the other two as well. :P)

Things I Can't Forget comes out April 2013, but you don't have to wait that long to get another taste of Miranda's awesome storytelling - Stealing Parker will be released on October 1st!

What do you think of the cover? Are you excited about Stealing Parker?
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