Flat-Out Love

3,5☆/5☆

4.5Oh stealthy NA-M/F book, sigh. You almost had my full heart, but of course something had to happen. In this case the three penultimate chapters dimmed what could've been a 5 star read for me. I can't say how/when I got this book, probably part of my usual troll for good narration, and in that area it was aces. [a:Julia Whelan 2939944 Julia Whelan https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1502403474p2/2939944.jpg] delivers a pitch perfect performance of a, IMO, pretty original (at least when it was published) story about new beginnings and loss.Julie Seagle, and ordinary girl from Ohio, is starting off her freshman year of college in Boston on the wrong foot. The off-campus housing she had arranged turned out to be a Craig's List fraud. Rescue comes in the form of her mother's former college roommate, Erin Watkins, offering temporary, later long term, lodgings in her home. More directly it comes in the shape of Erin's son, Matthew “Matt” Watkins, an unabashed geek, with the T-shirts to prove it, picking her up, and bringing her to Watkins' home. The Watkins family, made up of Roger & Erin, and their three children: Finn, who's away, Matt, the aforementioned geek, and Celeste, who's different. There's something going on with the Watkins clan, that a reader will probably pick up on sooner than Julie, but that's to be expected. They work really hard at deflection and she's young. I really liked this group of people and I liked how the story was told. I loved Matt & Celeste. Julie herself was a very cool chick, until the BIG REVEAL happened. I get that she's a young person, having the rug pulled out from under her, but the duration of her UPSET seemed more to do with the requisite “the H has done a bad thing, and needs to do some appropriate amount of groveling for the h's forgiveness”. It was out of character for the Julie we'd come to know, making her a selfish and un-empathetic person. It was “Matt did Julie wrong and must pay.”, when all Matt was doing was trying to hold his family together, and care for Julie, even when she didn't know or care to acknowledge the smart, geeky young man with the goofy T-shirts and unwavering love for his sister.My other gripe is how quickly and easily Julie seems to dismiss her hometown life, including her mother, who seems to be such a good person. People change when the go away to college, but this seemed too much too soon. Also a paragraph or two dealing with her father, his relationship with Julie's mother, and his relationship with Julie herself wouldn't have been amiss. If you like NA this will be an absolute win, and if, like myself, you rarely venture into this genre, you might be pleasantly surprised.

It seems like there was quite a bit of controvery about the behavior of this author and her reaction to some negative or not quite glowing reviews. I'm going to ignore all of that and focus on the book itself. I don't need to love the artists who are in my favorite band or the actors in my favorite movies. Sometimes living in the Information Age is more of a curse than a blessing.

This is a cute, fast read with genuine feeling and humor. It's not great literature, but it kept me well entertained for 24 hours. I guessed the twist in the story, as I suspect many readers will, but that didn't keep me from being moved when the heroine finally realized the truth. I would say the novel is more cleverly written than well written, but it's impressive for a self-published effort.