REVIEW: Adorkable by Sarra Manning

The latest novel by contemporary british author Sarra Manning, Adorkable is a breath of fresh air.

Jeane Smith is seventeen and has turned her self-styled dorkiness into an art form, a lifestyle choice and a profitable website and consultancy business. She writes a style column for a Japanese teen magazine and came number seven in The Guardian's 30 People Under 30 Who Are Changing The World. And yet, in spite of the accolades, hundreds of Internet friendships and a cool boyfriend, she feels inexplicably lonely, a situation made infinitely worse when Michael Lee, the most mass-market, popular and predictably all-rounded boy at school tells Jeane of his suspicion that Jeane's boyfriend is secretly seeing his girlfriend. Michael and Jeane have NOTHING in common - she is cool and individual; he is the golden boy in an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt. So why can't she stop kissing him?


This if my first Sarra Manning novel after a long amount of moaning from Katie to make me read Nobody's Girl, one of her other YA novels. I'm so glad that I did!

In my opinion, this is the epitome of a contemporary novel. It has a cool concept, (which according to Sarra Manning, does not stem from Tavi) and I really liked how that was incorporated into the plot.

It is written in alternating chapters, from Michael's perspective and Jeane's perspective. They overlap, but that just adds to your understanding of the events, and it's nice to see how they see each other, and what happens between and around them. It's one of the things about this novel that just worked!

Just everything about this novel is so cute, I just can't put into words exactly what made it so compelling -- maybe it was the romance, probably the comedy, the genuine behavior, that one quote I can't get out of my head, or just the great mood?

All I know is that it's awesome, and you have to read it if you liked Meg Cabot, Stephanie Perkins, if you're a girl and between 13 -17.

The 2012 Contemporaries

After deciding to join the 2012 YA Contemporary Challenge, I was putting together my list on Goodreads and I came across these books, which look really good. They come out at different times this year.

52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody


 If she wants to receive her beloved trust fund, every week for the next year, seventeen-year-old Lexi Larrabee must take on a different low-income job. All 52 jobs have been carefully pre-selected by her father himself. 

What Lexi doesn’t know is that each job was at one point held by one of world’s most influential people. The goal is to teach his daughter a few lessons about life, compassion, work ethic, and the value of a hard-earned dollar. If each of these jobs eventually led to wealth and success, at least one of them has to work for Lexi.

Left with no other choice, Lexi grudgingly sets off on her quest, each week being comically presented with a highly undesirable job. All of them are designed to turn Lexi into an entirely different person.

 Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale


When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself.

Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. 

But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all...

The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker

Fourteen-year-old Kentucky girl Ricki Jo Winstead, who would preferred to be called Ericka, thank you very much, is eager to shed her farmer's daughter roots and become part of the popular crowd at her small town high school. She trades her Bible for Seventeen magazine, buys new "sophisticated" clothes and somehow manages to secure a tenuous spot at the cool kids table. She's on top of the world, even though her best friend and the boy next door Luke says he misses "plain old Ricki Jo."

Caught between being a country girl and wannabe country club girl, Ricki Jo begins to forget who she truly is: someone who doesn't care what people think and who wouldn't let a good-looking guy walk all over her. It takes a serious incident out on Luke's farm for Ricki Jo to realize that being a true friend is more important than being popular.

 Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John

When sixteen-year-old Luke's book, Hallelujah, becomes a national best seller, his publisher sends him on a cross-country tour with his unpredictable older brother, Matt, as chauffeur. 

But when Matt offers to drive Luke's ex-crush, Fran, across the country too, things get a little crazy. Luke thinks he's enlightened, but he really needs to loosen up if he's going to discover what it truly means to have faith, and do what it takes to get the girl he loves.

 This one Time with Julia by David Lampson

The story of Joe, a boy who can fall in love but can’t grow up

After Joe’s parents died, he stopped growing up. He doesn’t know where his money comes from. 

His diet consists primarily of cheeseburgers from McDonald’s. 

He plays basketball on the level of a pro, but he has only ever played on the streets.

Then his brother disappears, and Julia shows up. Joe falls in love with Julia as quickly as his twin brother, Alvin, did. And like Alvin did before him, he runs away with Julia to her parents’ hotel. There, he’s so blinded by her seductive, dysfunctional family that he can’t see the truth of his brother’s disappearance
… until he accidentally stumbles upon Alvin’s killer.

The International Kissing Club by Ivy Adams

Piper, Cassidy, Mei, and Izzy have been best friends their whole lives. And they've always agreed on one goal: to get out of tiny Paris, Texas, and see the world. 

The school's foreign exchange program seems like the perfect escape: Piper will go to the original Paris; Mei will go to China; Cassidy will go to Australia; and Izzy, unable to afford the program, will stay at home. 

To add spice to their semester away, and to stay connected to their best friends, the girls start The International Kissing Club, a Facebook page where they can anonymously update one another and brag about all the amazing guys they're meeting. 

After all, these girls are traveling abroad: amazing guys abound at every turn! But sometimes fun, flirty vacation flings turn into more serious romances, and sometimes you don't return from abroad the same person you were. Will the girls' relationships-and their friendships-be able to survive?

What do you think? 

Do you want to read any of these?

Tell me what you think in the comment section below!

Isme