Adorkable

Jeane Smith has never been what you'd call a normal teenager. She dyes her hair weird colors (it's currently gray, like an old lady's), buys her clothes at jumble sales, and has a blog on youth culture that's turned into a full-fledged brand. Jeane has no patience for the boring, vapid teenagers who go to her school, so she's shocked when all-around golden boy Michael Lee approaches her and informs her that his girlfriend and Jeane's boyfriend appear to have a thing for each other. At first Jeane is angry and suspicious, which causes her to turn her wrath on Michael. In turn, Michael is extremely put off by Jeane's in-your-face attitude. But when one of their arguments inexplicably turns into a makeout session, Jeane and Michael begin show more spending more time together and growing closer to each other in the process.

I really liked Manning's novel You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, so I was excited to read this one when it came out. I ended up devouring it in a single day -- it may not be great literature, but it sucked me in! What I really like about these characters is that they're not too good to be true. They have real flaws, to the extent that they're downright unlikeable at times: Jeane is obnoxious, Michael is cocky, and they're both extremely self-centered. But the beauty of the story is that it lets you see that they are both lovable despite their faults. I also liked that Jeane and Michael's relationship is not the perfect, magical love that so often seems to appear in romance novels (both YA and adult). For example, Michael still has a deep attachment to his first love, and his relationship with Jeane doesn't make that previous relationship any less significant. So I would definitely recommend this book to fans of YA romance. show less

Here's a fact about me: if a title has the word dork in it, I'm going to read it. The same goes for nerd, geek, and librarian. I see these words and I just assume that the people within those pages will be my people, because, hello, I know what I am. Well, actually, it turns out I'm not so much a dork, according to this definition anyway, but, hey, the book was still totally fun, so I'm not really regretting my interest. Holla for all the dorks, geeks and nerds out there!

I think of myself as a fairly sarcastic, judgmental, bossy, intractable, and difficult to deal with person, but Jeane Smith is eight billion times more so. This girl does not ever go along with other people. She's making her own way all of the time, marching to the beat show more of her own crazily dressed drummer and convinced that there's no other drumbeat, so the rest of the people in the world look like assholes moving along out of tempo. Jeane is really hard to like, or she was for me. I empathized with her on some things: the difficulty of finding kindred spirits and the fact that many such spirits live on Twitter. On the whole, though, Jeane's biting personality proved a bit much even for me.

Thankfully, I got used to Jeane's way of being, so that, even if I don't like her especially, I am super entertained by her, which I think she would be totally okay with. I sort of think of Jeane as a combination of The Bloggess and Dorothy Parker. She blogs all the time, and has made herself into a lifestyle brand, tweeting pictures of things she enjoys and her daily crazy outfits. Being on her blog can make a brand or a band. Plus, she is totes brilliant at coming up with cutting comebacks, and she's rather snarly.

The overarching plot line deals with Jeane's romance, which conflicts with her values because she somehow finds herself kissing a *gasp* normal boy. In fact, the king of the normals, Michael Lee, sporty and wearing clothes from Hollister. Bleh, right? But he also happens to be a good kisser and fighting with him is really fun, and no one has to know, so why not? Honestly, I was super into this relationship, because you know how I love a good hate to love relationship and fangirl over good banter.

Michael and Jeane are also awesome because they don't act like teens in every other book ever. They actually agree to have no strings attached, or at least all of the strings are totally voluntary strings. Jeane encourages Michael to move their relationship to a sexual level, even though they're not in a relationship, because she's totally okay with herself and her sexuality. Even better, there's some awkwardness involved in their first couple of sexual encounters, and it's not all expert sex immediately, even though neither one was a virgin their first time. Their romantic arc is super cute and believable, and I rooted for those crazy kids, even if I'm not entirely convinced they could be a forever couple, but, honestly, who cares when they're so great right now.

For those who are like, ugh, romance, there are also some other plots involving Jeane's home situation. Her parents are the standard neglectful variety, both living in other countries, as is her older sister. Jeane has an apartment where she lives alone and eats nothing but Haribo, and lives in an utter mess that makes my house look perfectly pristine. To be entirely frank, though, I was super not in the book for these parts and I got a bit bored. Plus, I don't feel like her family life had any sort of plot resolution, other than that she sort of ended up adopting Michael's family, so I don't think this was what Manning super cared about in the long run.

Though Adorkable took a bit of time to grow on me, we totally ended up being friends, and I was really excited all week to read this in bits of free time, since I was reading this on my iPod touches Kindle app whenever I had downtime and no book. Adorkable is really funny and has some great romance. I've not really heard anything about Sarra Manning's other books, but I will definitely be looking into them. Peace out, dorkfaces! show less

I'm sorely tempted to give it up. It's a disaster.
This one induced a night of dreams filled with screaming apparently (I don't know why or what - got the heads-up from my parents. Rarely remember what it is that I dream during the night. I wonder what it was all about?).

I can't say I'm enjoying it. But.
My morbid curiosity is getting the better of me. I can see it sprawled in my armchair, grinning smugly.

EDIT:
NO. I refuse to suffer any more.
Whatever on earth and beyond possessed me to pick it up?

I need some good books to wash away the grime and the after-shudder.

Avoid it. It's so incredibly unbelievably UGH.
Whatever possessed me???

Wonderfull book, life affirming, very well written fast paced contemporary YA.

Very cute, fun and quick read. Loved it!

3.5/5

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The characters were great, and I loved the ending. It was good.

Full review: www.thebooktower.webs.com