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Thursday, 29 January 2015

LOVE BOMB by Jenny McLachlan

Love Bomb
Betty Plum has never been in love. She's never even kissed a boy. But when H.O.T. Toby starts school it's like Betty has been hit with a thousand of Cupid's arrows. It's like a bomb has exploded – a love bomb!
 
More than ever Betty wishes her mum hadn't died when Betty was a baby. She really needs her mum here to ask her advice. And that's when she finds hidden letters for just these moments. Letters about what your first kiss should feel like and what real love is all about…
 
Is Betty ready to fall in love? Will she finally have her first kiss?


Last year I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of a mega cute book called Flirty Dancing. Both my daughter and I absolutely loved it, so we were mega excited when we received the ARC for the second book in the Ladybirds series. And just like the first book, I read it in a day!

Betty Plum has just turned fifteen. She might be running late like usual, but she's still having a great day with her friends. When she meets the new kid in school, she sets her sights on this hottie. Toby is tall, cool, the right kind of boy she wants. So she makes it her mission to get his attention, which she has no trouble doing. Before she realises what's happening, she's caught up in a Toby whirlwind that has her fronting his band, hanging out with him outside of school, and doing all types of non-Betty things just to be around him.

This is one of those times when she wishes she still had her mother around. Sure, Betty and her father have a great, quirky life together and do all sorts of awesome, unusual things but she could use some advice about boys and falling in love. And that's where her mother's letters come in. Since her mother died when Betty was very small, her father's passed on a birthday letter every year. This one happens to be the last one, so she puts it off for a while. But when she eventually decides to open it, this final letter leads to a cache of secret letters.

As Toby pays more attention to her, she starts losing touch with her best friend Bill. A boy she's known all of her life and is still there when she really needs him. But she's also letting down her friends Kat and Bea. And she's starting to not get along with her father because for the first time in her life, he might have met someone that threatens their cool family routine. Not to mention the worst thing of all--that she's starting to stifle a bit of her awesome self. So Toby doesn't think she's stupid, she starts taming down some of her more odd tastes.

This story is just as good as the first one. It's fun and quirky, featuring a headstrong heroine who is hilarious but slowly starts to lose herself because she's convinced she's in love with a 'cool' boy. It's also an emotional ride about one young girl trying to use her dead mother's letters as a way of guiding her through romance and love. And what happens is her experiences, though different, end up being parallel to her mother's letters.

Love Bomb is another super cute, fun story about a very unique girl who loses sight of what's important on her quest to finding love. It's a coming-of-age story about a teenager who doesn't want her family life to change. A story about understanding that love is sometimes right in front of you. And just like Flirty Dancing, it'll hook you in from the beginning. This time, instead of cheering along, you'll probably want to hug Betty. Behind this hilarious, nice girl hides a sadness that leaps off the pages and touches your heart.
 
I loved this book, and I'm really enjoying this series. Thanks Bloomsbury Australia!
  

Love Bomb, April 2015, ISBN 9781408856093, Bloomsbury Childrens

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