Forbidden Boy by Hailey Abbott

Title: Forbidden Boy
Author: Hailey Abbott
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
Pub. Date: April 22nd 2008
Source: Cover2Cover blog

★

One star.

It's summer, and Julianne has some serious plans for fun and relaxation. She's going to try and ignore the tensions at home.... Mansions are being put up each and every day, and the owners are trying to bully the family into selling their home to be part of another vast expansion that they don't need. Their newest neighbors are especially pushy, but who needs them? She's got her projects, and her beach, and summer is calling her name. That is until she meets this dreamy boy, Remi. She's so excited and smitten, but there's one problem- Remi is the son of their bullying neighbors. What's a girl to do, and what's the cost of the perfect summer romance?

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I don't really know where to begin, but I'm going to try and keep this short and professional. Even though I'm raging on the inside and want to rant for the rest of my review.

-The relationship Julianne has with her sister in this story is ludicrous. Who are all of these authors that think that sisters are either absolute best friends or sworn enemies? There is a middle ground, you know. Her sister tries to get her to make out with boys in order to relive stress, and Julianna doesn't find this at all strange or intrusive. Ew. Maybe it's just me, but if my sister was like that, I'd probably flip her off and walk away, not grab a beer and have a giggle fest.

-All of the conversations in this book sound forced and fake. The slang between characters is awful, like something in a Saturday Night Live skit. I never bought into the realism that this realistic fiction eluded to, and preferred the plot when no one was talking.

-The title of this book is Forbidden Boy. That would lead the reader to assume that a boy is, well. Forbidden. I enjoy this type of romance. Take the book [book:Forbidden|7600924], where the lovers in question are brother and sister. Or even Romeo and Juliet, which also involved feuding neighbors. Only, they'd die. That makes their love a bit more forbidden. Just a smidge. This has cranky neighbors. There's nothing forbidden about him. Frowned upon, perhaps. But this isn't at all my definition of "forbidden."

-Instant love. That magical moment when everything in the universe aligns and a boy and a girl, in the most hormone filled time of their life, know that everything will be perfect with that other person. Sigh.

+The cover is pretty. I give it that.

All in all I found this to be a bad attempt at a quick beach/summer read. Maybe I'm just getting old or maybe it's because I'm not a "prep", but I didn't care much for this at all. I'd recommend it for maybe the younger end of young adult. If you read true forbidden romance, or are any kind of alternative stereotype (goth, punk, what have you), I would skip this.

Thank you to Cover2Cover blog for my copy.