Book Chop: My Ridiculous Romantic Obsessions

Title: My Ridiculous Romantic Obsessions
Author: Becca Wilhite
Genre: YA Romance
Verdict: Story was good, pretty realistic

Let me open this review with a big, fat, huge, 'IN MY DEFENSE' pre-qualifying statement, since I am a MAN and apparently this isn't the type of book I should be reading. (According to one of the ninnies who complained about my review of another YA chicklit).

The bookstore where I work has an employee-reading-incentive program, where if you read a handful of books off of the approved list, you get perks. I like perks. Perks are like mass, accleration and gravity in the sense that they make the world go round.

So anyway, I don't like to just camp in one genre, so I pick from a few different ones (the point of the program is for the employees to know a little about every genre). Last year I read Wilhite's "Bright Blue Miracle" and although the story didn't resonate with me, she's a talented writer and has a good voice.

I walked into this book expecting not to like it, because let's be honest, romance novels are to women what action flicks are to guys: they appeal to a basic biological need that is often devoid of reason and long on contrivances. Let's not focus too much on story, character depth or motive. I just wanna see stuff get blown up. Girls just wanna get swept off their feet by Fabio.

Well, the back cover says "This is not your typical romance novel", and that feels about right. It's about a girl who beats up on herself psychologically and emotionally (we all know one) because she got embarrassed by a major A-hole guy in high school (we all know that one too). So when a genuine nice guy takes an interest in her in college, naturally she's uber-suspicious and reluctant to assume he might actually like her.

The climax and ending of the book were really well-done, very thorough. Basically this novel does a great service to nice guys who often get shafted by girls who refuse to accept polite and tactful advances for what they are: tasteful demonstrations of affection. Not very often in literature do the guys' feelings get considered--it's only the women who can get hurt.

In the end, Sarah (the main character) learns a valuable lesson about how to read a guy, and makes amends with the dude who's been falling all over her since chapter one. Sarah was a convincingly real character without being overbearing, and Ben (main dude) had a lot of admirable traits while still having a major flaw. He wasn't an impossibly ideal male protagonist, a Darcy or Cullen by any stretch.

So in the end, yeah, I liked it, and I'd recommend it to people looking for a good, clean, uplifting romance. At 180 pages, it's pretty short too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go read The Running Man. :-)