Jenn Cooksey

I am in deep book like with Camie, Tristan, Kate, Jeff and their amazing parents and other friends but I LOVE Jillian. That sexy evil genius is the heart and soul of this series. It is so hard to review this book without extensive spoilers and this is the kind of book/series you want to read cold. It flows so well and the different POV's increase your understanding of this wonderful group of friends.

I hate a cliffhanger. I usually will down grade books that have frivolous cliffhangers to show more extend a story that can and should be one and done. This is NOT that kind of story. This is a story you cannot wait to get back to despite the raging, horrid, awful cliffhanger. To add insult to injury, I have no actual idea when the next book will be released. This typically leaves me ready to throw a huge toddler on a sugar high tantrum. This is one of the few series that breaks all my rules. shatters my angry reader fantasies and sends me into a book happy place. I love the author note at the end...basically a "you'll get nothing and like it." moment that had me laughing through my shock and awe moment. I would still read this series all over again. I will have to angry read a few other titles to get over this awesome book hangover. I have so many questions about how this love at first sight story will play out. Tristan and Camie work it out...right? To all that is holy, I crave a happy ending for them. With six, yes I said six, books in this series I have a bad feeling about books 3 and 4. BTW...Camie was the smartest girl ever to turn him down. Tristan needs to check himself before he wrecks himself. ahhh too late. show less

This review is also posted on my blog, Mommy's Reading Break

When I first read Shark Bait by Jenn Cooksey last summer, I knew there was going to be a sequel, but honestly, I was so in love with Shark Bait and thought that the ending was so good that I wasn't hugely impatient for the it. However, when Jenn started tweeting about The Other Fish in the Sea more and more in the last couple months, I got real impatient real fast! lol I was DYING for this book. My heart broke a little when I got show more denied an ARC. But I convinced myself it was okay because it wasn't a long wait. I even rearranged my entire reading schedule so I could reread Shark Bait first! And I started The Other Fish in the Sea as soon as it came out!

I loved The Other Fish in the Sea. I literally spent the day it was released doing only what I absolutely had to and reading every other moment. I even stayed up until almost 2:00am, on a school night, to finish it. And I am both so excited and so disappointed that I did. Anyway, let me backtrack a little.

After the Prologue, The Other Fish in the Sea starts off with Camie's group of friends hanging out at her house, which seems to be their new normal and talking about their Thanksgiving plans. I gotta say, there was nothing hugely exciting or overly dramatic going on in this scene, but I still loved it. It was like I never left San Diego or my group of cool high school friends. It was just a really cool friends being friends scene, and I was immediately immersed back into their world.

I felt like The Other Fish in the Sea was a much more evolved book than Shark Bait was. Yes, there were the lighthearted and absolutely hilarious moments that Shark Bait was full of, but there was also more emotions, period. There were some more heartbreaking scenes as we finally learned more about Kate's, Tristan's, Jeff's, and Melissa's lives, both past and present. There were some heart-stoppingly intense scenes that had me holding my breath. There were the stupid-teenager moments that had me groaning or rolling my eyes. And there was more romance. Oh yeah, there were also more sexy times. People are definitely not kidding when they say that Jenn Cooksey's books are Mature YA. But they were realistic.

One of the things I loved most about The Other Fish in the Sea is that there were different narrators of the story. This wasn't frequent, with narrators changing every chapter or so. Of the 31 chapters, counting Prologue and Epilogues (yes, "Epilogues. There are two.), only 5 of the chapters are from narrators other than Camie, but I loved them. We got to learn more about the characters and see certain things from different perspectives. Of course, these chapters aren't marked. There is no indication that the narrator is switching. However, Jenn warns of this in an Author's Note just before the book starts, so I was prepared, and I thought it worked. I actually did pick up right away that the narrator had changed (meaning she did a great job with differentiating their voices), and I was also able to figure out who the new narrator was before it was revealed! I thought that was cool, almost like a mini-game within the book!

There were several surprises throughout The Other Fish in the Sea, most pertaining to our main group of friends, but there were also some surprises involving their parents that I thought were really interesting. There are different relationship dynamics, with new relationships forming and other relationships evolving, and I thought it was really interesting to see those side by side.

Now, the reason I kind of regret binge-reading this book like I did: the ending. It wasn't a bad ending, but it was kind of a cliffhanger. Okay, forget kind of. It was a MAJOR cliffhanger, and guess what? Even Jenn doesn't know when book three will be released, which kind of makes me want to scream, cry, tear out my hair, and stomp my foot in a 2-year-old temper tantrum! Believe me, The Other Fish in the Sea is well worth the read even with the major ending, but I want to know more NOW! I'm sensing a reread in my not-too-distant future!

Okay, so that was a pretty long review, and if you read it all, thank you! But I just loved this book and had so many emotions while reading it. Honestly, if I weren't trying to avoid spoiling it for you, my review could probably be double the length just to talk about everything that happened! I HIGHLY recommend reading the Grab Your Pole series and would easily give it 5 stars and then some! show less

This was the best book I have read in a very long time. It is going up there with Twilight, Harry Potter, and the Hunger Games as one of my favorites!

Shark Bait follows Camie (Cameron) as she moves to San Diego and starts at public high school after being homeschooled all her life. On the first day, she sees Tristan and immediately falls in like. From there, she goes about trying to fit into high school and to land Tristan.

This book is realistic in its portrayal of teenagers, but more show more importantly, it is HILARIOUS! Some of the things that happen and/or come out of characters' mouths had me literally cracking up laughing out loud to the point that my kids thought I was crazy!

I don't want to give too much away, but I really loved this book. It's supposed to be part of a series, which both excites me and makes me nervous. It excites me because I want more of the story, but it makes me nervous because I loved this book so much that any sequels have VERY big shoes to fill!

In short, I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes YA! show less

I never thought my movie and music education would come from books, but I'll take it. Nice to know I'm more or less up to date with the Classics. All those refs? Yeah, I get them

This is a light fun read. But I kind of resent Kate doing the explanations (sort of?). No, no, I understand the necessity but I'd like Cameron to figure out some things in her head too - not that she doesn't, mind you.
Oh right, I'm halfway through. "A Piece of Red Licorice". If you are wondering.

EDIT 2013/09/25
One show more word: OVEREXPLANTION. So gods help me, but this book has been trying my patience for long enough. I skimmed mercilessly.

There's some fun things here. I loved those conversations-on-the-wall. Totally hilarious! And I absolutely adored Jill. I'd totally be her comrade-in-arms!

Which makes me want to bash my head repeatedly into some random surface. Because I'm totally too spoiled by well-written YA books to waste my time here. Really.

FINAL VERDICT: GO FISH!
That is, find some other fish to fry. Believe you me, there's lots to choose from.
Now outta here before I drown. Ugh. show less