The boy/friend

Girlfriend fiction 19

by R M Corbet

Allen and Unwin. Australian, Young Adult, Romance. Paperback rrp $14.99


Two teenagers living in the same street their whole life. Boy and girl. Best friends. One a punk rocker named after Louis Armstrong, the other, smart and intelligent and transferring to an all-girl school after winning a scholarship. What happens when both kids see each other as more than just friends?

Maude and Lou have been friends since childhood. They have their own secret spot down by the river, they built their own tree house together but now they are older and their lives are diverging in different directions. Neither can see the friendship as it was.

Eventually Lou makes the brave move of asking Maude to the movies.

‘Tonight?’
‘You got a problem with that?’
‘No. Except that it’s Friday and …’
‘And what?’
‘It sounds like you’re asking me out.’
‘I am asking you out.’
‘It sounds like you’re asking me out on a date.’
‘It’s not a date. It’s a movie.’

And so the friendship starts to unravel. Jealousy, dances, a new band, a few hairy bikies, another boy or two, another girl or two, a lot of junk – how will these two ever get together now!

A light hearted look at best mates growing up and discovering what it really is that makes their friendship work so well.

My Life and other Catastrophes (Issue 5), What Supergirl Did Next, Something More, Little Bird and Fifteen Love (also by R M Corbet), A Letter from Luisa, Thirteen Pearls are Girlfriend Fiction Series titles previously reviewed in the Reading Stack.



http://www.allenandunwin.com/girlfriendfiction/

Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Thirteen Pearls

by Melaina Faranda

Allen and Unwin. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $14.99

Edie lives in Cairns and attends high school there. She has spent the last three years scrimping and saving to build her boat. The boat that will take her sailing solo around the world. She is only a few thousand dollars off achieving her dream when she gets sacked from her part-time job.

Luckily, her uncle offers her six weeks work babysitting his step-son on his pearl farm island in the far north of Queensland. How hard could it be to look after a four-year old?

Edie goes blindly into the unknown despite words of warning from her mother. From the moment Edie arrives on Thursday Island, events take strange twists and turns and when she finally arrives at Thirteen Pearls, her romantic images are quickly dashed. Her dreams could just be that – dreams. Edie’s emotions are tossed around and then shaken and split just like the cyclone that threatens to destroy Thirteen Pearls and the young inhabitants.

Thirteen Pearls is a wonderful adventure story for girls. Edie is not your average high school teen heroine - but a strong individual with a sense of direction. A wonderful story with a wonderful main character. Melaina Faranda knows how to grab a girl’s attention!

Thirteen Pearls is the 18th novel in The Girlfriend Fiction Series.

www.allenandunwin.com/girlfriendfiction

A Letter from Luisa

by Rowena Mohr

Allen & Unwin. Australian, Young Adult, Girlfriend Fiction. Paperback rrp $14.99

Luisa is a teenage girl who seems to be in control. Very controlled. She has her homework sorted, her musician father and little ballerina sister organised and the Motherwell High School Twilight Fete running along smoothly. Everything is just right.

But nothing ever happens as it should when your heart strings are pulled. And Luisa’s strings are being twanged all over the place by Year 12 rock god, Jet Lucas. Luisa decides that Jet must play at the fete and Luisa must be his sound technician. What could possibly go wrong? Jet can play, Luisa’s dad has all the sound equipment and Luisa knows how to use it.

Luisa overlooks one very important fact - friendships, family and boys shouldn’t be all organised. Things should be left to play to their own beat. When the fete turns upside down with cars exploding, dogs burning and teachers being arrested for terrorism, Luisa starts to realise that her song is just beginning!

A Letter from Luisa is a funny look at when we set our sights on something we can be blinded by the different notes beating out of rhythm around us that we ignore all the right notes and go straight to the bad ones.

My 13-year-old daughter is a fan of the Girlfriend series– a huge recommendation because she isn’t serious about reading. Yet. Girlfriend fiction is helping change that. A Letter from Luisa is the sixteenth book in the series.

My Life and other Catastrophes (Issue 5) (also by Mohr), What Supergirl Did Next, Something More, Little Bird and Fifteen Love are Girlfriend Fiction Series titles previously reviewed in the Reading Stack.

http://www.allenandunwin.com/girlfriendfiction/