Book Review: 52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody

At First Sight: Lexie Larrabee is counting down the days until her 18th birthday, the day when she'll get the 25 million dollars sitting in her trust found. 

But after a night of hard partying and drama leads to her crashing her car into a connivence store mere days before her birthday, her absentee father decides it's time to teach Lexie some responsibility.

So, for the next year, Lexie is to work 52 different low-wage jobs all around southern California if she wants to get her hands on her money. Oh, and the arrangement also comes with a built in babysitter in the form of Luke Carver, a new intern in Larrabee Media and her father's newest lackey. 

Not that Luke isn't kind of hot, and young and sometimes even nice. 

Second Glance: I don't know why but from the moment I started to read 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, I liked Lexie even though at first she seems to be every bit the spoiled brat that Luke things she is. 

I think it was Holly, her dog, that got me to insta-like her. And I'm glad because, as the book progressed, I grew to like her even more. I loved how she began to appreciate each job she had to do and to find the silver-lining of the situation. 

Lexie could be a little dramatic at times, but I understood why: if she made a fuss or caused trouble, people (meaning her dad) noticed her, and she was very lonely - she's the only girl, and the only one of her brothers she ever felt close to is currently in the Peace Corps, and the other siblings ignore her for the most part - as a result, her antics didn't annoy me. 

There is a bit of romance too, and it was nice. I really liked Luke even if he could be a bit of a hypocrite at times - but Lexie calls him on it and I really liked that scene. 

The one criticism I have for the book is that Lexie's Dad undergoes a personality change toward the end of the book and that he was let off-the-hook way too easily.

Bottom Line: 52 Reasons to Hate My Father was a pleasant surprise to me, as I had never tried this author before. It had romance and friendship and it was fun and easy to read (and I mean that in a good way). I had a lot of fun while reading this book. Was it the book to end all books? No, but it was such a nice comfort read. 

Favorite Quote: "In fact, simply having her here with me now instantly shifts my mood. It’s amazing how she’s able to do that. People can be so annoying sometimes. With all their stupid opinions and hidden agendas. But dogs? Dogs don’t have any agendas. They’re as honest and open and devoted as you can get. And that’s why they’ll always cheer you up. They’ll always love you. No matter how badly you screw up. No matter where you happen to crash your Mercedes convertible." - Lexie about Holly.