FIRST LOOK REVIEW By the Time You Read This

TITLE: By the Time You Read This
AUTHOR: Lola Jaye
RELEASE
DATE: July 2008
GENRE: Chick Lit but is great for YA also
RATING: 4 Stars

What a great concept for a book. Kevin Bates died a while back, but he had the foresight to leave a "how to manual" for his daughter. So, when Lois is 12 years old, her aunt gives her this precious book - and the only rule is - Lois can only read one entry per birthday - until her 30th birthday.

I immediately connected with this storyline - as my dad died when I was 11 and I often wished he had been here to give me advice on my life.

When Lois is first given this Manual - she can barely read it - the opening chapters describing how she felt when reading her father's words are so touching - I kept having to push tears away. The advice given is pretty common stuff, but you can feel Lois' heavy heart as her dad reaches out to her and you can also feel how much Lois was in need of her father's help and support.

What I liked about this book is that we get glimpses of periods in Lois' life as she gets older - hight school, first love, camp, etc. The author does not feel the need to go into huge detail about each event in Lois' life, which I really thought helped the book stay grounded. Rather we get snapshots of these entertwined with her father's words and we get to see just how much she ends up relying on him for just about anything in her life.

It is interesting to see that her father seems to have, in some ways, more to say to Lois than her own mother does. Yet, I could be a little biais myself on this point.

This book was a joy. I loved being there to see Lois grow from a young girl to a lady - with all the trials and tribulations - all the growing pains.

This book is touching, funny and sad.

I loved it.