Adorkable
Sarra Manning's pitch makes Jeane and Michael sound like the kind of cliched characters that you don't want to read about. You're missing out on a really good book if you let that stop you. Sure, there are some things in the book that you'll think 'ugh, that's not realistic', but that's the entire charm of this book.
The book starts off by Michael approaching Jeane at a jumble sale where he plants the seeds that his girlfriend and her boyfriend are cheating on them. Jeanne thinks he's nuts. That's until she starts seeing that what Michael says may be true. There's a definite love/hate relationship between them and, I have to admit, I didn't understand her attitude. In fact, it's one of the things that annoyed me at the start. But then I started to learn more about Jeane and a lot of her attitude is something that she hides behind to stop people from seeing her vulnerability.
Jeane is the girl who is self-made. The girl who, through pure luck, founded a business based on her lifestyle. I thought it was all unrealistic until I remembered the IT gurus who became self-made millionaires at an early age. So it made me rethink that anything may be possible. The impression I got from her was that she needed something to replace what was missing in her life - her family.
Michael is a character that does have it all. I can't really think of anything going against him. He has two parents who love each other, two younger sisters who drive him nuts, but who he still cares about. Possibly the only thing that makes him uncomfortable is the pressure his mom puts on him regarding his education. Oh, and the girlfriend who cheats.
It was the secondary characters, Barney and Scarlett, crush on each other that started the romance and drama between Jeane and Michael. Barney and Scarlett are dependable characters, but each have hidden depths which come to the forefront during the book. I thought they were cute, even if a little odd.
The story is told in two voices Jeane's and Michael's. I loved reading about how each of them were feeling at the time. There's a lot of adventure in this book, a lot of denial and a lot of falling in love without knowing it. It does contain swearing and extremely mild sex scenes. But, on the whole, the plot was highly entertaining. There were times where I laughed, and other times when I could have cried. And moments when I thought my heart would break.
This book is for everyone who admits to being a dork, or who walks to the beat of a different drummer. Also for those who like happy endings, like I do, because, honestly, there's enough unhappy endings in the real world without wanting to read them in books.
Anyway, now it's time for my rating:- four out of five stars.
