Audrey Cutler is a normal Southern California girl. OK, her cat is overweight, but her best friend is awesome, and her parents might be hippies, but they adore her - because Audrey is funny, charming, and she likes her music loud.
So she struggles with dumping her musician boyfriend, Evan. She loves his band, but he's just too self-involved. Audrey needs to move on.
Then at one of Evan's gigs, Audrey gets to hear their brand new single and moving on doesn't seem so easy now: the song is called Audrey, Wait and it's all about her, and not in a good way ... The song storms quickly up the charts and reaches the top. Suddenly everyone wants to know: who is Audrey? The media is all over her like a rash, and what started out as annoying is becoming a nightmare!
On top of this, it is ruining her chances with James, her colleague at Scooper Dooper ice cream parlour. Audrey's life is veering out of control and there's only one thing for it. She's going to have to stand up and tell the world her side of the story ...
I've read SO many fantastic reviews of this novel all over the blogosphere that I just had to give it a try myself and now I definitely know why everyone and their monkey adores this gem of a book!
Firstly, it's downright hilarious and I found myself chuckling or cracking up on pretty much every page. The narrator Audrey is a seriously cool kid and her narration is very enjoyable; I think it was actually the best part of the book. The dialogue was great too, it was like one joke after another. All in all, this is definitely a book that will cheer you up even on the worst day, heh.
Secondly, the characters are just adorable! I can't say they were the most well developed characters ever, but that was beside the point in this case. All characters (well, at least the main ones - Audrey, Victoria, Jonah & James; oh and Audrey's super cool parents) are fantastic on their own, but Audrey and Victoria's friendship was also really well portrayed and it was the kind of friendship everyone can dream of, they really are the epitome of BFFs. The relationship subplots were really cute too - ah, to be 16 again, haha.
Plot-wise, the book was actually really quite simple (you can read pretty much the whole story in the summary above), which is not something that I generally applaud too, but again in this case it just didn't matter since the book excelled in terms of narration and characters. Nonetheless, the plot gets one massive plus for mostly revolving around music in one way or another - there are concerts, songs, jukeboxes, music shops, mixed CDs etc. You can tell the author (as well as our beloved Audrey) is a music geek (meant as a compliment!) so music plays a huge part in the story and a song is even featured in the title. I guess that's just one way of showing how a simple song can change lives - and boy oh boy, does Audrey's life change just because her ex wrote a song about her breaking up with him. Yeah, sure, she gets backstage passes and big offers people want her to be their muse too, but the downside is that everyone knows her and the paparazzi are following her and people are hiding in the bushes to tape her and taking pictures of her during class and she has fans as well as haters. Basically, her life becomes one big mess, but you know a badass chick like Audrey will find the perfect way to get closure, hehehe.
Oh and to top it all off, the cover is actually really cool too! I have the UK one and if you click the picture above to enlarge it, you'll see that it's actually like a vinyl record; if you touch it, it feels like one too. The cover is actually really fitting to the story - again, it's all about muuuuusic, woo.
Yes, I know this is not a masterpiece as such, but I just can't help help rating it 5/5. Every now and then it's not to read a 'happy book' and this is definitely one that'll crack you up and make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside. Strongly recommended for any reader of YA!
Have I mentioned that I'm really really really excited about the author's next book? Because yeah, I am - it's bound to be fantastic! ;)
overall rating:
plot: 4/5 | writing: 5/5 | characters: 5/5 | cover: 5/5
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7 comments:
This sounds like a fun book. I am overdue for some humor, straight up. :)
I absolutely ADORED this book. So very fun.
This sounds like such a fun read!And her other book sounds great too! Will have to put both books on my TBR list. Too bad you have to wait until aug. 2010 for book #2! Thanks for sharing! A great review!
Oooh. The plot sounds really interesting. It's not the typical high school YA. Great review. :)
I love books that keep me laughing.
I love music geeks! Can't wait to read Audrey Wait :-D
I absolutely agree with your review! It was such a cute and fun book, and definitely deserve the praise. I hope you're also enjoying "Time of my life"; I liked it, and appreciated that it had more depth than I thought it would.
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