Love and Leftovers: A Novel in Verse

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Average customer rating 3.5 (2 comments)

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love & leftovers is a fabulous new book by author Sarah Tregay! The narrator �" a Boise High School student whose mother has taken her from her home in Idaho to New Hampshire �" has a fresh, authentic voice. Martha Iris, aka Marcie, feels like a real teen. Since the novel is written in verse, it doesn’t get bogged down by too many adjectives, exposition, or landscape descriptions. If Marcie tells you about it, it matters in her life. The plot revolves around her coming-of-age away from her friends, specifically her boyfriend Linus, in Boise when her mother escapes from the discovery that her husband is gay (which is not actually true, though this is explained later in the novel). Marcie is swept up in her mother’s emotional flight, landing in New Hampshire where people leave off the “r’s” on words and add them where they’re not written. She meets new friends �" slowly at first �" and a special guy who makes her question her long-distance relationship with faraway Linus back in Boise. Teens will love the IM chat conversations, the YouTube performances, the swift plot movement and character introspection. Author Tregay has pegged today’s teens quite accurately, with clear language & heartfelt dialogue. Thumbs up!

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* Hardcover: 448 pages * Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (December 27, 2011) * ISBN-10: 0062023586 * Author: Sarah Tregay * Cover Art: Very cute * Overall rating: *** out of 5 * Obtained: My personal bookshelf. Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay Reviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews. My wish is to fall cranium over Converse in dizzy, daydream-worthy love. When her parents split, Marcie is dragged from Idaho to a family summerhouse in New Hampshire. She leaves behind her friends, a group of freaks and geeks called the Leftovers, including her emo-rocker boyfriend, and her father. By the time Labor Day rolls around, Marcie suspects this "vacation" has become permanent. She starts at a new school where a cute boy brings her breakfast and a new romance heats up. But understanding love, especially when you've watched your parents' affections end, is elusive. What does it feel like, really? can you even know it until you've lost it? Love and Leftovers is a beautifully written story of one girl’s journey navigating family, friends, and love, and a compelling and sexy read that teens will gobble up whole. (Synopsis provided by goodreads) For me this book was just okay. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. It's a book I will most likely forget about in a week or so. I've only read a few books in verse before. I liked the flow of this one the best so far, it got to the point and moved very quickly. It should be said that this book is for older teens, there is a lot of talk about sex in this book, a lot. I'd say a good quarter of the book or so deals with it. There are no sex scenes just talk about it. If you are easily offended by homosexuals in books, then this book is not for you as there is a gay character in it. I really wanted to love this book, when I picked it up, I knew it was a book in verse and set in two different places in the USA and that I liked the cover. That was it. I read this book in a few hours and while I don't regret reading it, I also am not overly glad I read it. It's just a middle of the road average okay story. I did have an issue with the ending, it felt forced and it all wrapped up a little too neatly. In a normal high school age group the issues that were brought up and the obstetricals the characters had to over come would never have just gone away that easily. That being said, I would pick up another book by this author again, if they write another, however, I'd get it from the library. Due to how much talk of sex is in this book and the fact that a character is gay, I expect this book to be challenged through out the next few years.