Booklist
"Readers will be easily drawn in as Sones convincingly relates story after story before revealing that many events were skillfully fabricated by Colette. The well-crafted verse speeds along fluidly...Many readers will recognize their own lives as Connor dramatically beats Colette at her own game and teaches her essential life lessons about vulnerability, honesty, and self-discovery."
BCCB
"Readers will relate to the ups and downs of a new romance, the disappointment of unanswered texts and a phone that won’t ring, the elation of stolen kisses, and the angst of deciding how far to go physically...a light-hearted take on disappointed romance for readers with active fantasy lives of their own."
TeenReads.com
"Sones has perfected the art of the verse novel...Sones writes with such an intriguing and effortless style that I flew through 50 pages without even realizing it."
Booklist
"Readers will be easily drawn in as Sones convincingly relates story after story before revealing that many events were skillfully fabricated by Colette. The well-crafted verse speeds along fluidly...Many readers will recognize their own lives as Connor dramatically beats Colette at her own game and teaches her essential life lessons about vulnerability, honesty, and self-discovery."
School Library Journal - Audio
11/01/2013
Gr 9 Up—Colette is the 15-year-old daughter of an actress and she lies all the time. Her therapist believes she suffers from daughter-of-a-famous-movie-star disorder, but Colette says she lies because it is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Of course, she hasn't had any fun with her clothes off, but she is hoping that won't be for long. At the beginning of the summer, her mother takes her away from their Hollywood home to spend the vacation on location in a small town. How boring…until she meets Connor, an older guy who knows nothing about her. She weaves a tale to keep her mother's identity hidden and begins to build a relationship on lies. What she doesn't know is that Connor has his own secrets. Sones's coming-of-age novel in verse (S & S, 2013) is full of humor and witty conversations. Colette is constantly veering off on tangent story lines and then telling listeners that she made it up. Kate Rudd's narration breathes life into all the characters and she perfectly voices the little brother's lisp. While the writing is great, the text becomes confusing when it goes from humorous to serious and back to humorous. A supplemental purchase.—Elizabeth L. Kenyon, Merrillville High School, IN
Kirkus Reviews
Sones returns to the Hollywood setting of her affecting verse novel One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies (2004) for this partially successful study in narrative unreliability. Almost 16, Colette is not looking forward to summer, which she will spend babysitting her 7-year-old brother, Will, in San Luis Obispo, where their actress mother will be on location. In classically narcissistic fashion, their mother instantly hooks up with her co-star, so Colette spends even more time than she expected playing Hungry Hungry Totally Annoying Hippos with Will, who is credulity-stretchingly adorable ("your ath will be grath," he mock-warns her). Things start looking up when gorgeous Connor, a motorcycle-riding local, bumps into Colette and Will at the farmers market. In seemingly no time, Colette and Connor have a hot-and-heavy flirtation going on around the babysitting. Sones again employs the verse form that has served her well in the past, the one- and occasionally two-page poems keeping pages flipping. Colette is "a big fat / liar" who spins fib after fib, only to contradict it at the very beginning of the next poem. It's a technique that works well as the characters and plot are becoming established, but readers may find it wearing as what was a frothy romance turns into a cautionary tale, one that leaves Colette sadder, wiser and less interesting. Readers who find themselves liking the view through Colette's purple-tinted contacts may well be disappointed by their removal. (Verse novel. 12 & up)
