by Maureen Johnson
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Lightning flashed over Big Ben, and a bruise-like darkness draped over the dome of St. Paul’s.”

Ah, Maureen Johnson.

When life has got you down, or you need a bit of a pick me up after that really depressing novel, who else do you turn to provide a distraction? (Well, there are others, but since this is a review of Maureen Johnson’s book, we’ll just assume that she’s the best at it.)

I would say that this story is much like the others (except it’s nothing at all like Devilish or Bermudez Triangle): Clio, 17 years old, plucky artist, has a crush on Ollie who works at the local art store. What better way to get close to him than to work at the same store for the summer? Except fate (and her father) get in the way: he proposes (and since her mom’s going to be in Kansas — of all places, it’s so horribly boring here — she’s been force to accept) that Clio spend the summer with him. On a boat. Off the coast of Italy.

Sounds horrid — and to some extent it is; since her parent’s divorce, Clio and her father have been estranged. To help with the pain of… the weirdness of it all… there’s Elsa (who is your stereotypical Scandanavian Beauty: voluptuous, gorgeous, blonde… and nice) to be her friend. And Aiden — stuffy, snarky, Yale-educated — whom she can’t seem to get a handle on (even if we all know where it’s headed. Most deliciously headed.)

Sure the plot’s probably predictable, and some of the characters are one-dimensional (the over-protective mom, the snobby English workaholic who’s dating her dad, her dad’s buddy…), but that’s not why we read the books. Or why we like Maureen Johnson. No, we like these books because she captures that sweet romance, that first blush of falling in love, that *sigh* moment absolutely perfectly.

And we all need a little bit of that in our lives once in a while.

Buy it at: Amazon, Powell’s, or your local independent bookstore.