Review: Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

Goodreads:  Something is seriously off in the Watkins home.  And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.


When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in.  The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes.  The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side . . . and the social skills of a spool of USB cable.  The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.


That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates.  Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul. 


To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that . . . well . . . doesn't quite add up.  Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer?



Kritters Thoughts:  A wonderful mix of quirky and smart humor.  At the center we have a freshmen headed to school left without housing and must call on a distant family friend for temporary housing.  This housing becomes anything but temporary and I am not sure even after finishing if she affected the family more or if the family she stayed with affected her more - up for debate.  A few twists and turns, some I predicted, some came out of nowhere, but all fit great into the story.


The one issue that affects the entire family - I was able to predict from pretty early on.  But you know what, it didn't ruin the reading for me.  I actually enjoyed it because I was able to spend the book waiting for the main character to find out what I already knew and how she found out and when she would find out.


I don't often compare books to other books and things, but each time I cracked this book open it took me back to the days of watching Gilmore Girls.  Have you ever read something and known that the conversation was just bouncing back and forth, well this book's quick conversations kept me going - I loved it.


A book worth picking up on your next trip to the bookstore.



Rating:  absolutely loved it and want a sequel


Pages:  400


Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from the author in conjunction with Crazy Book tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.






Tour List:
10/3/2011 - Practical Frugality - http://practicalfrugality.blogspot.com
10/4/2011 - Colloquium - http://www.jhsiess.com
10/5/2011 - Reader Girls - http://readergirls.blogspot.com           
10/6/2011 - Kritter's Ramblings - http://www.krittersramblings.com  
10/7/2011 - Reviews by Molly - http://reviewsbymolly.blogspot.com                         
10/8/2011 - Laurie Here Reading and Writing Reviews - http://www.lauriehere.blogspot.com   
10/9/2011 - WV Stitcher - http://kittycrochettwo.blogspot.com                     
10/10/2011 - A Bookish Affair - http://abookishaffair.blogspot.com/                   
10/11/2011 - the bookish mama - http://iam-bookish.blogspot.com                          
10/12/2011 - Books in the Burbs - http://www.booksintheburbs.com                        
10/13/2011 - The Many Thoughts of a Reader - http://hotpinkvixen.blogspot.com                  
10/14/2011 - Proud Book Nerd - http://www.proudbooknerd.com/              
10/15/2011 - Hippes Beauty and Books OH MY - http://www.hippiesbeautyandbooksohmy.com/
10/16/2011 - StephTheBookworm - http://stephthebookworm.blogspot.com                      
10/17/2011 - A Cozy Reader's Corner - http://acozyreaderscorner.blogspot.com                
10/18/2011 - Authors Book Corner - http://www.AuthorsBookCorner.blogspot.com               
10/19/2011 - Amusing Reviews - http://amusingreviews.blogspot.com