REVIEW for Girlfriend Material

A huge thank you goes out to author Melissa Kantor who was super quick in sending me out her newest book to read and review.

TITLE: Girlfriend Material

AUTHOR: Melissa Kantor

GENRE: YA
RATING: 4 Stars

I love EVERYTHING Melissa Kantor has written to date. Her previous book, The Break Up Bible, was absolutely great - so needless to say I was thrilled when Melissa sent me her newest book to read and review.

In Girlfriend Material, we find our main character Kate - she is a teenager with all the usual teenager angst - she is also in the middle of two parents who seem to have lost their way and as summer approaches, her mother suddenly springs a big surprise on her - they are going to Cape Cod to visit her mother's best friend and her family - the catch? dad is not coming.

As Kate's mom explains it - she needs time to get away and to "think thigs over". Kate is, of course, furious - not only is she missing her summer with her friends, now she is going to have to spend the summer "stuck" in Cape Cod, probably having to entertain the daughter of her mother's friend.

As the book opens, we find both Kate and her mother, in the car, heading towards Cape Cod.

I knew that I was going to like this book immediately after reading the first 2 pages. The description (Kate's point of view) of the tense and annoying situation in the car on the drive over was so well done - that I felt myself immediately putting myself into the storyline.

One of the things that I also discovered very early on is that, for the first part of this book, I could not stand either Kate nor her mother. Although Kate would deny it, she and her mother obviously shared many common traits - one of them being that they react very similarly in times of stress - both women pull back and become extremely annoying. Yep, for the first part of the book, I thought both Kate and her mom needed a good slap upside the head. Kate for being so broody and Jane (Kate's mom) for being so annoyingly out of touch.

Yet, I loved reading every word of this novel. As the story progresses we get to finally discover alot of the inner emotion and thoughts that are going through both Kate and Jane. It is obvious that this sotry is about "coming of age" for both of these ladies and the process of getting there is obviously painful for both of them.

Yes, there are "guys" involved and actually its quite a nice romance brewing between Kate and Adam - and I thought this was handled very well and Kantor does a great job of developing both these characters as a couple, but also draws us into the relationship.

I also enjoyed the relationship between Sarah and Kate. I thought Sarah was going to turn out to be one of those "selfish" YA that we seem to find in many novels lately, but the author chose to go another route.

But most of all, this book is truly about two women who both need to re-connect with themselves and with each other. This is a touching story about a mother and daughter who think they are so far apart, but in reality, are much closer than they thought.

Beautifully written.