Book Friday—Nothing but Trouble by Susan May Warren
29 January 2010
First of all: Paging Lizzie Boyd of Huntsville, Alabama. You won a copy of Out with the In Crowd on Robin Grant’s blog, but we don’t have a way to contact you. So, if you see this, e-mail me. (Or if you know Lizzie, pass that along, please.)
Onto Book Friday.
“PJ Sugar would never escape trouble.”
This is the opening line for Nothing but Trouble by Susan May Warren. I could tell right away this was going to be a very enjoyable read.
So the book is about, as you might guess, PJ Sugar. And the back cover copy of the book is so pithy, that I’ll just use it instead of fumbling around for my own words:
PJ Sugar knows three things for sure:
After traveling the country for ten years hoping to shake free from the trail of disaster that’s become her life, she needs a fresh start.
The last person she wants to see when she heads home for her sister’s wedding is Boone—her former flame and the reason she left town.
Her best friend’s husband absolutely did not commit the first murder Kellogg, Minnesota has seen in more than a decade.
What PJ doesn’t know is that when she starts digging for evidence, she’ll uncover much more than she bargained for—a deadly conspiracy, a knack for investigation, and maybe, just maybe, that fresh start she’s been longing for.
So I loved a variety of things about this book. In no particular order, here they are:
1. PJ herself. PJ has some definite flaws and insecurities, but at the same time she’s so bold and … I don’t know exactly what word I’m looking for. Transparent, maybe. Or stripped down. She’s not a frou-frou girl, and she doesn’t mind running out to the grocery store in her pajama pants and flip-flops.
2. This book has a lot of the same themes in it that I wrote about in the third Skylar book, So Over It. It’s about going back to the people who watched you make mistakes and facing the music, even though it was easier when you were on the run. Because it dealt with so many of PJ’s high school friends and insecurities, there were a lot of YA elements, which of course I totally dig.
3. The mystery storyline combined with PJs wit and the generally light tone of the book. And I don’t mean “light” as in no-depth, just that the voice was very playful, so the juxtaposition was interesting.
4. Boone and PJ. Seriously swoon-worthy stuff. I thought them getting back together was a guarantee, but Mrs. Warren did a fabulous job of making me doubt that Boone + PJ = happy ending for all.
The second book, Double Trouble just released a couple weeks ago. It’ll definitely be gracing my shelves.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Aw, man, now I have to read this. My shelf is SO overflowing!
Posted by Roseanna White on 29 January 2010