Book Stop Corner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



“What she had realized was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst.”







Margo Rabb, an American author, pens her new novel, Kissing in America that traces the journey of a 16-year old girl who takes it to find her best shot at love, which is not only finding out the pros and cons of love, but also finding out who you are and what you really want in life.




Synopsis:

In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who seems to truly understand Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California without any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, perhaps, her shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast to see Will again. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love.

Eva's father died in a tragic plane accident two years ago, since then she has been coping with her father's loss by reading romance novels. But then she meets Will in her school who too knows a lot of grief and family drama and because of it, they bond over quite easily, gradually, their bonding turning into something stronger called love. Unfortunately, Will moves to California all of a sudden, that is when, Eva along with her best friend, Annie, formulates a road-trip plan to visit Will and to get find her true love.

The writing style of this author is really good as she have masked the tone of the book into something emotional, and the way the author have captured the tormenting and sharp taste of grief is really brilliant, since I could contemplate with the pain. Unfortunately, the beginning of the story is nothing much captivating enough to draw me in with an annoying protagonist, Eva.

The prose is quite elegant and lovely. The narrative is kept realistic but at times bit cheesy with Eva's suddenly-turned-into-a-romantic-person kind of feelings. The chemistry in the book is really sweet yet the main focus of Eva's loss of her dad never once left the storyline. The gripping and sharp hook of loss and death vividly shines through the storyline and especially through Will and Eva's relationship.

At times, the story went on and one with all the relatives of Eva protecting her, which was not that interesting to read about. Otherwise, the plot is quite engaging one especially with Eva's POV, we could feel her pain of losing her father and her mother distancing herself from the pain by not talking about it.

The characters are all very real and strongly developed, given the fact that this is an emotional journey, the author have carefully etched out her characters with lots of compassion. Overall, this is a strong and moving novel which had it's fun moments and sad moments, but except at some instances, the book didn't disappoint me especially didn't make the story dull at all.

Verdict: I strongly advise all the teenagers to read this book especially if you've lost someone and if you're strongly infatuated over someone.

Courtesy: Thanks to the publisher of the author for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book. 
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Author Info:
Short bio: I love books, chocolate, cats (especially of the Edward Gorey variety), old movies, and more chocolate.

Long bio: I'm the author of the novels Kissing in America and Cures for Heartbreak, and I've written essays, articles, book reviews, and short stories for The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic, Slate, The Rumpus, Zoetrope: All-Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, and One Story, and elsewhere. I grew up in Queens, NY, and recently moved from Austin, TX to Philadelphia, PA. I write about grief a lot (my mom died when I was in my teens and my dad died when I was in my twenties). Here's a link to an essay I wrote recently, about the death of my cat and the death of my mom (it was published, coincidentally, on the 24th anniversary of my mom's death)
Visit her here 


Book Purchase Links:

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