Monday, November 7, 2011

Review: Chasing Boys by Karen Tayleur


An insightful coming-of-age novel for girls with no interest in being “Pretty in Pink”.El Marini just isn’t fitting into the new life she’s been forced to create without her dad. Her mom and sister have accepted his absence and moved on, but El is convinced things will get back to normal if she just keeps her feelings of loss to herself and waits it out. Life at her new public school would have been unbearable if weren’t for Eric Callahan. As her crush grows to epic proportions, she’ll do anything to be more like the popular girls he notices, even buying the first pink top she’s ever owned. But then she meets Dylan, a quiet artistic-type who is both unnerving and annoying as he shines a light on El’s misguided attempts to attract Eric. El’s need for acceptance will hit home with teens as she finally sees that chasing boys has distracted her from making peace with the past and finding herself. (Goodreads)
 

Format: Hardback

Pages: 244
Publisher: Walker & Company

Plot: Ariel Marini. Her dad has not been around for about a year now and she is just getting used to not going to private school. She has two best friends and together they are the three amigos. They are so different, but so alike, except El Marini wants only one thing: Eric Callahan. Beautiful, angel boyfriend to Angelique Mendez. In detention, she meets Dylan and her first impression of him is bored, macho and thick. When she and Dylan get paired in a project, she finds that he is annoying....and she likes it. While she finds Dylan annoying, she also befriends Angelique and finds out that Eric was never who she thought.

Characters: Ariel had me hooked, literally, from the first page and 2:00 in the morning. It was chapter 40 before I went to bed. In the summary it says that El starts to be one of the girls that wears black all the time and I can tell. From the beginning of the book, she has this thin monotone voice that is just right for a calm night read. I found my feelings back and forth on El because she was so hypocritical and most of the time I felt sorry for her being so confused.
     For a book that has a title that hints to a lot of boys, strangely there are little boy introductions. Eric is the boy El thinks that she wants and anytime she talks to her, he is very charming, but fake. Other times he acted like a horrible jerk. I could already tell that he was not a candidate for happily ever after.
     Dylan is Eric's cousin and Blair High School's newest student. In detention, he doesn't make the best impression on El and he is instantly put on the back burner. When El starts to get to know him, she finds out more. He is incredibly sweet, a good counter, and an incredible artist. In a few short meetings, he becomes my favorite and El's too.

Overview: Chasing Boys is extremely misleading and should be called, "What Shouldn't Happen When You Chase Boys?" I didn't have the romance I was expecting, which is why I disliked the ending, but it is an inspiring story for me and my friends when we start to date

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