Audrey, Wait!

Book reviews are not my bread and butter, my cup of tea, or my eternal passion. See, I follow book reviewer blogs. I admire their economy of words summarizing complicated stories into effortless snapshots. I enjoy their opinions and make notes of what I want to read on Goodreads. (I'm kicking myself because I updated my list last night and I couldn't remember HALF of what I wanted to read. ARRGHHHHH. We need a tool that when we see a book on a blog we can click some magical button and it updates our Goodreads. Or does that already exist?)

However, I feel compelled to write about Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway,

Okay, here's my quick stab at an original summary. Audrey is a highschool girl with a totally awesome teenage life: best friend, love of music and pop culture, and cool parents. Her life is turned upside down, though, when she breaks up with her boyfriend. He writes a hit song and suddenly as the song, Audrey, Wait! climbs the charts, Audrey's personal life becomes public.

What's not to love? It's an ideal YA story set to our culture's fascination with the inside scoop. Through Audrey, we get that inside scoop and the angst it causes.

Now, what I got from this book in a nutshell:

1. Joy

2. Laughter

3. Laughter

4. Suspension of time and place

5. Total satisfaction

Okay, let me elaborate. I found this book while investigating agents and promptly checked it out of the library. Its first impression was enough but what really drove me to read this book was personal. It seemed like the cute niece to my novel, Strong Enough, and everyone knows finding a book to which you can compare your book in a letter to the representing agent is a step up in the grueling process of becoming published. A small step, but at least it feels like forward motion.

Despite my personal motives, I was hooked in the first chapter. I immediately quit thinking about the book in terms of what it could do for me and fell in love with the characters so clearly drawn and easy to imagine.

The plot of a teenager thrust into the limelight by being the subject of her ex's hit song is wonderful. The kind of thing you read and say, "Why didn't I think of that??" Audrey is likable from the first sentence and never let's you go. 

The dialogue is natural and laugh-out-loud funny. The plot never stagnates or takes a de-tour before righting itself. If novels are roller-coasters this one is smooth and thrilling.

If you do nothing else, read the excerpt and I am confident you will be compelled to read this wonderful book as well.

Cheers!
Ellen

** OH! And I'm very excited about Robin Benway's new book: "The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June." I will buy this one because I'm confident Robin Benway won't disappoint.