Book Review The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

Amazing cover or what?

At First Sight: After one bad breakup too many, Penny Lane Bloom decides she has had just enough of boys and heartache, and decides to turn to the only four guys that had never let her down: John, Paul, George and Ringo. 

Intended as a club of one - Penny herself - she forms the Lonely Hearts Club, vowing not to date anyone, or risk her heart, at least for the reminder of high school. As boys are the enemy, and she's not about to lose her heart in battle again. 

But, as school starts, keeping the Lonely Hearts Club secret becomes difficult. First there is her former best friend Diane, who basically dumped her for a boy four years ago and suddenly starts talking to her again, and they re-discover their friendship. Diane also just broke up with her long time boyfriend - though it was quite amicable - but she's kind of tired of having to always please others, and needs time for herself, so she decides to join the Lonely Hearts Club. Then Penny's other best friend Tracy suffers a bit of a disappointment too, and joins in.

When the three girls decide to go to the Homecoming dance together as friends, they start a snowball effect, quickly realizing just how many girls needed a club like that. A safe place where they could be themselves without the pressure of dating. But not everything is perfect in Penny's life, even with the success of the club. 

Boys aren't happy about the LHC, some because they are utter jerks, but some because they aren't really so bad. Like Tyson who is really into Penny's friend Morgan and was just trying to gather the nerve to ask her out. Or Ryan, Diane's ex with whom Penny became friends over the years and vaguely flirted with.

Second Glance: The Lonely Hearts Club is an amazing story about Girl Power at it's best. I love how quirky-but-kind-of-normal Penny is. How she realizes that generalizing isn't good, how girl power isn't about not dating boys but about being good with yourself, with your friends and being exactly who you are boy or no boy. 

I really liked how Penny was willing to admit to her mistakes, even if she did struggle and blotched it up at times. Penny so reminded me of myself at 16 sometimes, mistakes and all. I also loved Tracy and Diane, who start as enemies and end up as friends. Diane was a really great character. I think I'm a little in love with all the girls from the club, they were so different but so there for each other, and that's what friendship is all about, I think.

Also, I want to give a round of applause for timing and plotting Diane and Ryan's relationship/break up/friendship so well that I never felt uncomfortable when Ryan... well, read the book.

Bottom Line:A great debut novel filled with laughter, silliness and friendship with just a dash of romance to keep things interesting. Loved it to pieces, with all that I'm so not a Beatles fan girl.

Favorite Quote:  It has hard but I boiled it down to three, all said by Penny. 

"The leather-​bound book felt heavy in my hands, the years of emotion inside weighing it down. I opened it up and scanned the entries, most of them filled with Beatles lyrics. To anybody else, it would seem like nonsensical associations, but to me, the lyrics meant so much more than their words. Snapshots of my life: the good, the bad, and the boy-​related."

"If you look around you, you'll see that there is an amazing group of people here tonight, a perfect support system. We can do anything if we stick together. We just have to believe in ourselves. And we deserve whatever we want. If one of us needs help with a test, we should be there for that person, if one of us wants to pursue or dreams, no matter what anybody else seem to think of it, we'll be there for that person." 

"Yeah, cute in a demented way. Like a drunk puppy" (added just because it make me laugh so hard I nearly fell off my chair and people looked at me funny)