Fourteen year old Georgie Harris feels as if the summer holidays are over before they have even begun. Banned from going to the local drama workshop by her bully of a step-dad and her increasingly fragile mum, she is consigned to six long weeks of looking after her tooth-fairy obsessed kid sister. Sick of feeling like the outsider at home and at school, she starts emailing the one person she thinks might understand; Dylan Curtland, star of the popular soap opera Jessop Close. And when Dylan starts emailing back, Georgie finally feels a spark of hope. At last she has someone who really gets her, someone who really wants to help. But in the faceless world of email all is not as it seems…
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I received this book from Siobhan herself for review. You can't know how excited I was about this as this is the first book I have received for review since I begun blogging!
I loved this book. It is written in email format throughout following an ongoing conversation between Georgie and her Emate over the course of 6 weeks. I initially was a little bit wary and wasn't sure if this idea would work but it did wonderfully.
When I first started reading the story I was a little skeptical as I thought the relationship between her and Nancy was a little weird. Georgie is your typical teenager (who is depicted exceptionally well might I add). She is normal was was wonderful - not a show off cool kid or a complete loser. Her friend Nancy is a lady in her older years and I didn't intially see what they had in common or how or why they would relate to each other or want to communicate with each other but as the story I went on I started to believe it and see how special their relationship was.
I loved Georgie as a character. As I said above she is wonderfully normal teenager with a heart of gold. She has a lot of real rubbish to deal with but deals with it and does all she can to help the people out she cares about most.
The relationship she has with Nancy surprisingly works well. They mirror each other well and the relationship works boths ways and they both gain from it rather than it being adult passing on wisdom and guidance to child. I really liked that about the book as so many people today label kids in that age bracket quickly as being hooligans and knife wielding hoodies! It is clear that the author has actually spent time with teenagers which I think helps.
The main story follows Georgie through her summer holidays and the differing events she goes through. While I don't want to go into too much detail I'll just say that some of them are very funny whereas others are quite moving and make you really feel for her.
To sum up - a fab little story with a plucky lovely normal main character who is a fab little role model for the age range the book is aimed at.
If you would like to read this book go to
http://www.siobhancurham.co.uk/
where you can download it for FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comments
Anyway, this sounds great! Looks like something I'd like to read. :)
The story looks really sweet and I liked how you emphasized the 'normality' of Georgie, it really lacks in some stories.
Have a lovely day!
x Caroline