Saturday Snippet Reviews | Valkyrie Rising & How (Not) To Find A Boyfriend

There are times when Heather, Aly & I finish a book, but don’t have time to write a full, comprehensive review… or even a shorter “flashbulb” review.  BUT we still want to share our thoughts with you on what we’ve been reading. That’s why every Saturday we’ll be featuring 3 “snippet” reviews — short, sweet, to-the-point reviews that we’ll try to keep to 2-7 sentences.  So we hope you enjoy these!!

 

Very interesting, a bit (refreshingly) different, and I LOVE Tucker… but the story lagged in the middle, I found myself irritated with the “withholding crucial information from the heroine” plot device, and one character’s back story seemed a bit tacked on just for the sake of adding yet more drama. And though I’m all for feminine/individual independence, the subplot of Ellie coming into her own and demanding to be seen as a capable young woman felt a bit… unsubtle? After school special-ish?… rather than a natural development of her character.  All that said, overall, I did enjoy it and I do hope there’ll be more to Ellie’s story at some point.

 

To summarize–Nora Fulbright, nerd girl extraordinaire from a family of nerds with a reputation of overachievement and epic social awkwardness, is given a gift every nerd girl dreams of: a move to a new town, new school, and a new reputation. Nora goes from social outcast to social butterfly in one year when she becomes one of two sophomores to make the varsity cheerleading squad.

Nora’s future is looking bright as she’s poised to begin dating the star of the football team, Jake–who’s IQ could use a little work but who’s PQ (popularity quotient) is through the roof. As long as Nora can keep her past nerdom a secret, she will be completely metamorphosized into the New Nora she wants to be…or she thinks she wants to be until Adam, the smart, adorable, wonderful…you get the picture…new kid, steals her heart. Suddenly, Nora’s only sure she wants one thing…Adam.

Nora decides she’s going to do whatever it takes to get the guy and rule the high school social butterflies. She begins swapping favors in exchange for conveniently placing herself in Adam’s path. Basically, she manipulates her friends, family, and even Adam through swaps, lies, and pretending to be someone she’s not. And when the world comes crashing down…well, let’s not bee to spoilery.

As a nerd-girl who moved around a lot as a kid, I can appreciate the opportunity to start fresh. I get wanting to leave her past behind her and have a chance to be part of the “in-crowd.” However, the lies and manipulations got way out of control. Nora became a completely different person, and the consequences for her actions were minimal at best. She also did all of this for a guy. Nora should very little of character and quite a bit of selfishness and quite frankly stupity. For such a smart girl, Nora really screwed up big time. The book left me wonderful why Adam, a genuinely awesome guy, would ever want to date someone that fake.

Overall, I thought How (Not) to Find a Boyfriend was an entertaining and humorous read, but it was a little fluffy for my taste.

Happy Reading!