Tuesday, March 16, 2010

For Keeps-- Natasha Friend


Josie and her mother Katie are extremely close. Maybe it has something to do with their small age gap... Katie had Josie when she was a teenager. Maybe it's because Katie can't seem to keep it together and Josie is the mature influence in her own mother's life. Or maybe it's because (gasp) sometimes mothers and daughters really DO have a good relationship.

Josie's father has never been a part of her life. He moved away with his family when Katie was just barely pregnant with Josie, which is just fine with her. Josie and her mother make a perfect team, and her best friend Liv and her two dads round out their group. But when Josie saves the life of a man who was a regular at her place of employment, a local coffeeshop, everything begins to shift. The man she saves turns out to be her grandfather, and a whole new family is revealed to Josie, whether she likes it or not. Add in her romance with soccer star Briggs, her own strong role on the soccer team, and some life-changing decisions, and you've got an understanding of Josie's complicated existence.

I've read just about everything Natasha Friend has written. Something about her writing really sucks the reader in, the same way Sarah Dessen's characters do. But the difference between Friend and Dessen is that after I've finished a Natasha Friend novel, I tend to forget all about it. But don't get me wrong... I will still totally read anything she writes. Funny how that works.

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