Title: Jersey Angel
Author: Beth Ann Bauman
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Release date: May 8th 2012
Pages: 224
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: NetGalley
It's the summer before senior year and the alluring Angel is ready to have fun. She's not like her best friend, Inggy, who has a steady boyfriend, good grades, and college plans. Angel isn't sure what she wants to do yet, but she has confidence and experience beyond her years. Still, her summer doesn't start out as planned. Her good friend Joey doesn't want to fool around anymore, he wants to be her boyfriend, while Angel doesn't want to be tied down. As Joey pulls away, and Inggy tours colleges, Angel finds herself spending more time with Inggy's boyfriend, Cork.
My rating: 1 out of 5 stars
I hate writing negative reviews. Hate, hate, hate. And giving a book only one star... I haven't done that in a while. I feel so mean! But Jersey Angel annoyed me to no end, and I have no choice but to give it a bad review.
The reason I didn't like Jersey Angel is Angel. She is not a likeable character. At all. She's full of herself, doesn't do anything and blames everyone around her if her life isn't perfect, and sleeps with every guy she meets. She hooks up with her best friend's boyfriend - and it's not a one-time-thing; they hook up all the time. A cheating-storyline can be good if it's realistic and there's a lot of sexual tension; the best friend and the boyfriend hold back until they can't resist each other anymore, or something like that, but that's not the case in Jersey Angel. They hang out once and immediately sleep together, and then they're just hooking up all the time. Angel doesn't feel the least bit guilty about it. Once - once - she thinks about what she's doing might be wrong, and she imagines herself and Inggy as eighty-year-olds, how she might tell her she slept with her boyfriend and how Inggy wouldn't be mad because friendship is what's most important. Um, what? How does that make any sense? Angel has no morals, no qualms about sleeping with her best friend's boyfriend - or anybody's boyfriend - and, God, she just made me so angry!
Then there's the way sex is addressed. I don't want to sound like a prude, and it's not like a mind sex scenes in books - I mean, it's a normal part of life - but there is just way too much sex in Jersey Angel. It's basically all about sex! Seriously, more than half of the scenes are descriptions of Angel hooking up with various guys. How can that be the main plotline? Just... ugh.
Angel isn't the only character who is totally focused on sex and whom I didn't like - there's Cork, Inggy's boyfriend who sleeps with Angel and is a total ass; Angel's mom, who, instead of getting a job, also sleeps with whatever man she can find and, get this, makes out with Cork, a guy less than half her age who also happens to be her daughter's best friend's boyfriend; Angel's little siblings, who, even though they're only eight and ten, are somehow also all about sex; Joey's new girlfriend, who is basically just as bad as Angel; and the list goes on. I didn't like any of the characters.
Really, that's all I have to say about this book. The obnoxious main character and the complete focus on all things sexual made me feel icky and just... wrong. I wanted to stop reading several times but made myself finish the book so I could write my review. I do not recommend Jersey Angel.
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