Flashbulb Review | So Over You by Gwen Hayes

Layney Logan, girl reporter.

That’s all she’s ever wanted to be. This year, her senior year, not only does she have to share the coveted Senior Editor position with her arch nemesis, Jimmy Foster, she also has to figure out how to keep the school paper alive. With the local paper closing and the school cutting Journalism from the budget, it’s a long shot. Working side-by-side with Foster, the guy she likes to call Lucifer, makes it even worse.

The only thing Layney dislikes more than swimming in the high school dating pool is Jimmy Foster thinking he got the best of her, so she takes his ridiculous newspaper assignment–to go on twelve blind dates–to prove his powers of darkness won’t work on her. The trouble is, the more she learns about herself on her journey of bad blind dates, the more she wonders if maybe Foster has known her better than she knows herself all this time.

And maybe she should have trusted him with the secret she’s kept for four years—the secret that broke them up to begin with.

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This book had me alternating between laughing out loud and crying. Logan and Foster are beautifully written characters, and Hayes has a wonderful talent for creating intelligent and satisfyingly snarky dialogue. The way these two bounce off of each other remind me strongly of “His Girl Friday” but Hayes took it to an emotionally-charged next level that just made this book shine.

As funny as this book is, there are some heartbreaking themes that are dealt with in So Over You. To the author’s credit, the transition between the humorous and the serious tones is handled very smoothly and the subject matter dealt with in a believable way. The balance Hayes achieves between poignant and hilarious is very well done.

Overall, a bright jewel in the young adult indie publishing crown.