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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
Atmospheric and descriptive, Kephart has a way with words. However, for those who like plot-driven stories - this probably isn't the book for them.
I really enjoyed this book! The cadence of the writing was really poetic and made a not-entirely-eventful story fun to read. Kenzie is your average high school student who is looking to her future, when her father passes away. Her bestfriend and boyfriend, Kevin, is there for her every step of the way but she ends up getting pregnant. Worried about what everyone will think, her mother sends Kenzie to Spain where she will stay with a family and giver her baby up for adoption. But while in Spain Kenzie learns new things about herself and is forced to make some difficult decisions.
Source: Library
After having some mixed experiences with Kephart's previous works, I had decided to swear her off, sensing that we just did not click. But then in the year end wrap-ups, I saw some of my favorite bloggers praising her latest (see below for links) so I gave in and picked this up at the library. As you can see from my rating, I ought to have abstained.
After her father's death, Kenzie discovers she is pregnant by her Yale-bound boyfriend (realized that my opening may have made this sound like an incest book, which it's not) and she insists on giving birth to the baby. So her mother arranges for an adoption and for Kenzie to reluctantly spend the summer in Spain where the adoptive parents reside. There she meets people and discovers things.
While I can see the beauty in Kephart's writing, I just found the entire experience of reading this so dull and unengaging. I felt dropped into the story without necessary contexts; I spent most of the story thinking it was set in 2012 (it's not; it's 1995-why 1995? I don't know); I think there might have been a new romance blossoming for Kenzie with a boy in Spain but I'm not sure; I'm not entirely sure when and how she got pregnant beyond knowing in my head the mechanics of human reproduction. Was it a reaction to the death of her beloved father? I didn't get a good feeling for their connection (and that's bringing all the feelings about my dad into this story-I know I would have been devastated so why can't I imagine Kenzie as devastated? She didn't feel real to me.) There were some very emotional moments for the characters in the book but I just felt nothing beyond boredom and wondering if I could still count this as a book read if I skimmed to the end (I decided that it does.)
Suffice it to say that I can recognize the skill in the writing here but it all left me cold. I wanted to feel something, I should have felt something considering the themes touched on and yet nothing.
After having some mixed experiences with Kephart's previous works, I had decided to swear her off, sensing that we just did not click. But then in the year end wrap-ups, I saw some of my favorite bloggers praising her latest (see below for links) so I gave in and picked this up at the library. As you can see from my rating, I ought to have abstained.
After her father's death, Kenzie discovers she is pregnant by her Yale-bound boyfriend (realized that my opening may have made this sound like an incest book, which it's not) and she insists on giving birth to the baby. So her mother arranges for an adoption and for Kenzie to reluctantly spend the summer in Spain where the adoptive parents reside. There she meets people and discovers things.
While I can see the beauty in Kephart's writing, I just found the entire experience of reading this so dull and unengaging. I felt dropped into the story without necessary contexts; I spent most of the story thinking it was set in 2012 (it's not; it's 1995-why 1995? I don't know); I think there might have been a new romance blossoming for Kenzie with a boy in Spain but I'm not sure; I'm not entirely sure when and how she got pregnant beyond knowing in my head the mechanics of human reproduction. Was it a reaction to the death of her beloved father? I didn't get a good feeling for their connection (and that's bringing all the feelings about my dad into this story-I know I would have been devastated so why can't I imagine Kenzie as devastated? She didn't feel real to me.) There were some very emotional moments for the characters in the book but I just felt nothing beyond boredom and wondering if I could still count this as a book read if I skimmed to the end (I decided that it does.)
Suffice it to say that I can recognize the skill in the writing here but it all left me cold. I wanted to feel something, I should have felt something considering the themes touched on and yet nothing.
This is another short but poignant read.
The Seville setting makes the story. You can almost smell and see and taste (especially taste) the oranges, the paella, the bulls, the heat. Excellent descriptions.
I can't think of anything I didn't love about this story. Kenzie's mind is a complicated place and seeing everything through her eyes makes for an intense journey. Great protagonist.
It's a pregnant teen book that manages to not be overbearing, didactic, extreme, cheesy, or any other word that would make this book an after school special. Kenzie really wrestles with the no-good-options here sense of her situation and that keeps the story in balance.
And for a book that is not exactly a romance, it certainly sizzles.
The Seville setting makes the story. You can almost smell and see and taste (especially taste) the oranges, the paella, the bulls, the heat. Excellent descriptions.
I can't think of anything I didn't love about this story. Kenzie's mind is a complicated place and seeing everything through her eyes makes for an intense journey. Great protagonist.
It's a pregnant teen book that manages to not be overbearing, didactic, extreme, cheesy, or any other word that would make this book an after school special. Kenzie really wrestles with the no-good-options here sense of her situation and that keeps the story in balance.
And for a book that is not exactly a romance, it certainly sizzles.
I can kind of see why others like it very much, but it didn't resonate with me. Rather than enriching, the flowery metaphors kind of took me out of the story. I found all the slow reveals a little annoying and the characters were too flat for me to really know or care about them.
I thought this book would be so much more. I read it to preview before passing off a pregnant teen story to E. now I won't pass it on because the disjointed writing leaves too much out.
I didn't like this one very much. The only things I enjoyed were the descriptions of Seville and Estela's character.
this was a cute found family book which I am always here for. the lack of quotation marks in some places irked me a bit because there didn't seem to be any reason for that but it was a fairly unique story