Title: Sweethearts
Author: Sara Zarr
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: Nicole at Linus’s Blanket highly recommended it, and I needed a good read for my summer beach vacation (now in progress, yay!).

Summary: Jennifer and Cameron were each other’s only childhood friend, but then Cameron disappeared without saying goodbye. By high school, Jennifer has become Jenna, landed a cute boyfriend, and has lots of friends. So why does she feel like a fraud?

Review: From the title and the cover (must. bake. cookies. now.), I thought this would be a light little romance, possibly with large amounts of baked goods. Yum.

I was off base, though strangely not on the baked goods front. But this bittersweet story is worth every bite. And I’m not usually into bittersweet chocolate let alone books, so trust me on this.

On the writing side, I liked how Zarr dropped unnecessary words in dialogue, especially with one character’s speech, to make it sharper. In this snippet, it’s the character who’s speaking first:

“I could just see from looking at you that you had a good thing going. Didn’t need me coming along and messing it up.”

“Don’t say that,” I said quickly. Then: “You were never a part of what I wanted to forget.”

“Nice of you to say, but I know it’s not true.”

I knew what he was thinking, could see that he’d been carrying around the same burden all those years as me.

Now I’m interested in reading Zarr’s first book, Story of a Girl, and excited about her 2009 release, Once Was Lost.

Your Turn: Have you read any of these 3 Zarr titles? Which was your favorite?

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did You Like This Book? Try:

Related Posts