Being Sloan Jacobs
Book of the Week 2
I adored Meant To Be. It was super cute and fluffy. A sweet love story, great characters and great writing style. So when Morrill finally released another novel- I was so excited. I got a whole bunch of my reading friends to read it. Because you can't go wrong with reading Morrill, I told them.
Well, I wasn't correct. Though I wasn't quite wrong either.
See the first issue I had was the story line. It reminded me of a book, I read as a kid. (a middle grade book) We talking ALOT. Well basically it was super similar except there was Iceskating and Hockey at summer camp - and there were 17year olds not 13year olds so the romance bit was about them not their parents.
I found myself kinda bored after 30% - and l love hockey and ice skating. Winter sports was always my thing plus I was brought up in Heidiland... it would be considered criminal there if I wouldn't. I don't feel that Morrill did either sport justice. I do see that she tried to point out the difficulties in both of them. But I felt like she wasn't sure if she is writing a fun and cute book -- all the pranks ect.. or a serious sports critique trying to point out the difficulties and downfall of young athletes. Personally I feel she fell short on both.
I would have been fine with this I guess.. but I really really am not a fan of the characters. First and foremost I didn't care for any of them very much. I found them all rather immature actually, they behaved more than half the time like 14year olds. I found them seriously mean, not in a fun way mean but sadly in a making crinch cliche way. The "nemesis's" were the worst. I mean can you spell Bitch de lux all wrapped up in every corny teen movie cliche? The besties? Gay African American Figure Skater? UGHHHH!!!! Don't misunderstand me, I don't have issues with someone who is gay and happens to be African American- but it just felt like your typical Hollywood kinda thing to do. Why couldn't he be a hockey guy? or whatever! This is just too much your typical teen movie for me.
I couldn't relate to either Sloan, though I am not sure why this is. I know what Morrill tried to do, but I think that my experiences in competing in winter sports were just so different that I simply couldn't get into it. Also again, they are both rather stereo typical characters, especially considering their backgrounds. The only redeeming characters were the boys. The romance was sweet - once it finally happened and Morrill can write mysterious, cute boy characters. I would be totally into both of them!
The writing style is solid just like I expected. And while I found this not to be to my taste, I definitely will be picking up Morrill's next novel.
Honestly I think alot of people are going to find this cute and fun and enjoy it. Personally it was just too much of your cliche teen movie.
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