Ok, so firstly I am going to confess to a slight bias when writing about this book; it is written by one of my friends so I am bound to be positive about it. This book is not aimed at people like me, and by that I mean old people! Yet I found myself really enjoying it. It is essentially a book about miscommunication and the awkwardness of first love – set in a ski resort.
Mouse was a talented dancer and was attending a selective dance school where she hoped to achieve fame and fortune. She went to the trials with her friend Lauren (who is now the queen of mean); she got in, Lauren didn’t. Fast forward a few years and Mouse has been told that she no longer cuts it and must leave the fancy dance school and return to her old school with all her old friends who had waved her goodbye. Two of them; Keira and Connie, accept her back no questions asked and the three become fast friends. Lauren and her gang of cronies on the other hand, pretend to but then bitch about her in the toilets. In her wisdom, her mum has signed her up for the school ski trip so she can get used to being with the others again before she returns to school. She also tells them a big whopper of a lie which she will need to sort out before the end of the book.
Jack and his two friends are just looking forward to meeting some girls. None of them have even so much as kissed a girl so their aim for the trip is to get some action. This may prove difficult as none of them seem to know what the heck to do! These two worlds collide and Mouse and Jack, through a series of unfortunate events, end of spending more time together. Drop in a French teenage heart throb and you have a recipe for some cringe worthy times!
This book is different to their last collaboration; Lobsters. The target audience and characters are younger for a start. They are all in year 9 and this is their first experience of love. The trick is that both authors write so well about what it was like to be that age that it reminded me what it was like; the awkwardness, the way that you really wanted that boy/ girl to just notice you but when they did you had absolutely no idea what to say… It’s hard being 14 and knowing that there will be loads more of this to come and wanting to experience it but at the same time wanting to hide under the duvet and eat a jar of Nutella (or was that just me?)
The split narrative is really good as well, who wouldn’t want to know what the other side is thinking? There is even redemption in the form of Mouse telling Lauren at the disco that she shouldn’t give up on her dreams – I for one would have happily punched her on the nose!
Loved this book and can’t wait for the next one. It’s a great combination that gives us girls an insight into what is going on in the male mind and boys will hopefully see that girls pretty much think the same thing as them – with more lip gloss.
grown ups can read teen fiction too 