Review: Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

Released: April 11th, 2011
Published by: CreateSpace
Series: Stand Alone Novel
Star Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Kindle
Page Amount: Unknown
School Rating: A (87%)
Age Group: Young Adult Fiction

Summary

Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance.

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.

When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side ... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well ... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

First Line

Julie Seagle stared straight ahead and promised herself one thing: She would never again rent an apartment via Craigslist.

Review

FLAT-OUT LOVE was another book I loaned from Felicia, and she had said it was amazing. I had high hopes going into this novel, and lets just say they weren’t let down. This book was amazing!

This book is a perfect summer read. Its light, fluffy, and a quick read, which is a perfect summer read in my eyes.

Julie was a very likable character, she was realistic, fun, and just an overall great character. Celeste was very quirky, which I love the occasional character who has a lot of quirks. Matt was the nerd in the book, he was the one who would rather spend a Friday night up in his room on his computer than hanging out with his friends. I thought Matt was an awesome character.

I don’t think I have ever read a book set in Boston, which is a city I would love to go to someday. I enjoyed reading about all the sights around, and this book just made me want to go there even more. (I also love their accents, which has nothing to do with the book but I just thought I would share).

I found the beginning a little slow, but once I got past the first little bit the plot just started rolling at a good, steady pace.

Oh my gosh… the ending. I was totally not expecting what happened to happen at all. Although now that I look back on it I don’t think it could have ended in any other way to make this book better.

Overall, FLAT-OUT LOVE was an amazing summer novel, a must read for everyone.

Cover Comments

I love the cover of this novel. At first I wasn’t a fan and didn’t get what it was supposed to mean, but as soon as I finished it I realized that the cover connects a lot with the story. I don’t think this novel could have a better cover.

Love,

Sierra