RANDOM READ - DON'T CALL ME BABY - REVIEW

I found this awesome meme because of Feed Your Fiction Addiction which led me to I'm Loving Books, who actually hosts this meme :).  I love this meme.  It helps me read at least one book a month in my TBR pile that I have been dying to read and just haven't been able to.

This month's random read is from last month.  I picked three and got one done.  This month I kept the two I didn't finish and finished one.  It's been a busy month!    So these are the Random Reads I had carried into August:

#2 is #510 - Don't Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley

and

#3 is #179 - If Only We by Jessica Sankiewicz

As you can see I only finished Don't Call me Baby.  So for September I will keep 

If Only We and hope to add more to the pick.  September is going to be just as crazy though.  I am taking my oldest daughter up to college in a couple of weeks :(.  Trying to get a kid ready for college is not as fun as it seem :).  

Anywho...here is my Random Read for August.

pic and description taken from Goodreads

Description:

All her life, Imogene has been known as the girl on THAT blog.

Imogene's mother has been writing an incredibly embarrassing, and incredibly popular, blog about her since before she was born. Hundreds of thousands of perfect strangers knew when Imogene had her first period. Imogene's crush saw her "before and after" orthodontia photos. But Imogene is fifteen now, and her mother is still blogging about her, in gruesome detail, against her will.

When a mandatory school project compels Imogene to start her own blog, Imogene is reluctant to expose even more of her life online...until she realizes that the project is the opportunity she's been waiting for to tell the truth about her life under the virtual microscope and to define herself for the first time.

Don't Call Me Baby is a sharply observed and irrepressibly charming story about mothers and daughters, best friends and first crushes, and the surface-level identities we show the world online and the truth you can see only in real life.

My Review / Thoughts:

I really enjoyed reading this book.  When I read the description I kind of laughed because I AM that mom.  Only, my blog  (my personal family blog) is private.  I haven't blogged on it for quite some time, but usually when I take a picture my kids say "is that going on the blog"... DUH hehe

This took blogging to a whole new level.  Imogene has grown up on her moms blog.  If I was Imogene, I think I would feel quite the same way she did.  Violated.  Probably the wrong description, but that is how I felt while I was reading the book.  I felt Imogene was being extremely violated.  What teenager girl or boy would want the whole world to be able to read about every embarrassing moment you have had and so on?  None that I know of.  

Imogene and Sage decide to take their school project to heart.  They decided that they would create blogs just like their moms had, and expose them while doing it.  Hoping that it would help their mothers see how inappropriate their blogs are.  Well, things unfold a very different way.

I love the growth that Imogene and Sage go through in the book.  Every teenager has to find their voice at some point, and this is how they felt they could find theirs.  It didn't play out the way they planned, but ended up being a great project.  It helped them find what things are really "important" in life.

I love Imogene's grandma.  She is probably my favorite character of all.  She has such a sense of humor, and can see that Imogene is struggling, and fights for her and is always on her side.  She is Imogene's best advocate.  

This was a cute story.  It's a story about, growth, some revenge, teenage life, and so on.  It's just a fun read.  I told my daughter it was a little teeny bopper, but I still liked it.  It has a great message to it.

Source:  I was bought this book for myself.  I was not compensated in any way for this review.  These are my own PERSONAL thoughts on the book.

My Rating:

Where to Buy:

  

About the Author:

pic and bio taken from Goodreads

Gwendolyn Heasley is a graduate of Davidson College and the University of Missouri-Columbia where she earned her master’s degree in journalism. When she was a little girl, she desperately wanted to be the next Ann M. Martin- the author of the beloved The Baby-Sitter’s Club series. She’s incredibly grateful that the recession rendered her unemployed and made her chase her nearly forgotten dream. Her third novel Don't Call Me Baby comes out in April and her digital e-novella The Art of Goodbye (the sequel to Where I Belong) comes out in March.

She loves hearing from readers. Please email her at gwendolyn.heasley@gmail.com 

She now lives in Florida with her husband and baby girl.