Retro Friday (20) - You Maybe by Rachel Vail

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! 

For this week, I wanted to give a book I owned but hadn't liked so much a second chance, just for kicks. So I chose You, Maybe by Rachel Vail.

The Deal: Josie is neither popular nor unpopular high school junior; she has two best friends, and a boy who could maybe be more than a friend... and she's possibly the only girl in the school not in love with Carson Gold - the post popular guy at school.

That's until Carson notices her and suddenly, after a couple of after school hook ups, they are an item, and Josie finds herself on half of the IT couple, with all the good and bad it entails.

My Thoughts: I'm sorry to say "You Maybe" was a bit of a book-fail for me. Technically, the book isn't bad, the writing is actually very good, but I didn't care for the characters and it all felt very two dimensional.

The way Josie falls for Carson and becomes another Carson fangirl annoyed me, the causal approach everyone took toward 'hooking up' bugged me no end - Josie is making out with Carson one day and with her friend the other (because she and the friend were in kind of a defacto relationship, even though Josie thought all they did was kiss, which is kind of ridiculous if you ask me).

Josie's friends weren't a win either, part of me felt like they were the standard-somewhat promiscuous-outgoing-friend, and the standard-shy-genius-friend, and beyond that they had no personality to me.

Anyway, everything felt kind of flat to me. The writing was very good, I just didn't like the characters, other than Josie's mom, I like her though she's in like 1% of the book.

Favorite Quote: "Well?" Carson asked, "What do you believe in? Chemistry? Cold hard science?"
"Chocolate, books and true love," I answered.
He smiled at me, "Me too, at least chocolate and books. Love is a brat."
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