Review: Me, Suzy P.

Author: Karen Saunders

Edition: Templar eBook

Released: January 1st 2013

Series: No, standalone

Pages: 352 approx.

14-year-old Suzy Puttock and her three best friends lead an average teenage life, spending most of their time in school, home or hanging out in cafes. Side-splitting mishaps and cringe moments have a nasty habit of following Suzy wherever she goes, but otherwise life's pretty normal - she's been going out with Danny since forever, her nutty older sister Amber's wedding is taking up all her family's attention and her annoying younger sister Harry is intent on making her life a misery. But when gorgeous new boy Zach starts showing Suzy attention, she wonders if the grass may be greener on the other side of the romantic fence. Before Suzy knows it, she has broken up with Danny, there's a huge rift in her friendship group and life is careering off track. Can she sort herself out before things are messed up completely?

MY REVIEW:

You know how I'm always saying chick-lit/contemporary books aren't my thing? Well, on this occasion, feel free to call me a hypocrite because I LOVED this book. Now, if you've stuck by this blog long enough to know how stubborn I usually am when it comes to reading these genres, you may be thinking: Rachel, why did you even pick up a chick-lit book in the first place?! Well I have the lovely Cliona over at Bookster Reviews to thank for that! Cliona posted an excerpt of this book a couple days ago and, hey ho, I loved the excerpt so much so that I instantly bought and downloaded the book on to my Kindle app yesterday, read it in only a number of hours and now need to fan-girl about how much I loved it with all of you. It was that amazing! xD

 

I don't think I'm ever going to get over just how exciting this book is to talk about! And it's a chick-lit book at that! I'm literally bobbing up and down like a lunatic just thinking about it. Seriously though, a book that can make me laugh as hard as this one definitely deserves a medal. As well as one that can make me cringe as much too! It was unreal the amount of times I had to calm myself down before I woke up the whole house laughing my head off, let alone how many times I had to hide under a pillow cringing at something Suzy had done. She was so accident-prone it was hilarious! Believe me when I say, if you're ever in a sour mood, read this book. I bet you anything it will brighten up your day! :P

 

The main character, Suzy, is your not-so-average, average teenage girl. I just adored her! She was the perfect narrator for a story such as this and I can't imagine Saunders ever having made up a better main character. Suzy was stubborn, compulsive, bold, vulnerable... I don't think there are any teenage girls out there that couldn't relate or empathise with her - even if it's just a little bit! After the first couple chapters I was pretty sure that I was going to prefer Zach over Danny but as I got further and further into the story I knew this wasn't going to be the case. So another character I grew to love was Danny. There was so much more to him than what I first thought. I also enjoyed both Millie and Jamie's characters and found their relationship really sweet. ^.^

 

Boys, bullies, family troubles... There's something really quite realistic to this book that teenagers can easily appreciate. There's also a few twists thrown in to keep the attention of the reader and, even though I did guess one, I still felt for the characters when it was revealed. And the ending to this book? The author rounded it off perfectly! It left me with a smile on my face that refused to budge for hours. If all chick-lit/contemporary books are like this one then I've certainly been missing out! I really hope that this wasn't just a one-off though, because I now have high hopes for this genre! ;)

 

In conclusion, I loved Me, Suzy P and I easily recommend it to anyone willing to give it a go. Even if you were like me and you try to avoid the chick-lit genre at all costs, give it a go. You might end up loving it as much as I did after all! If you don't, feel free to blame me! Not only is this book funny - hilarious, even - it's also heart warming, relatable and will have you smiling like a lunatic at the end. There's a great range of multi-dimensional characters as well and Suzy is easily loveable. I'll definitely be checking out more of Saunders books if she decides to bring out any more - which I hope so! :D
 

FIVE STARS! xD

 

Happy Reading,
Rachel xoxo