Review {8} Over You by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Title: Over You

By: Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Published: August 21, 2012 by HarperTeen

Edition: Hardcover, 304 pages

Obtained: Library

Rating: 4 Stars - Highly Recommend

My Thoughts: My only other adventure with this set of authors was when I devoured my Barnes and Noble clearance edition of The Nanny Diaries. I was fully and happily submerged in the lives of Nanny and the X’s, and so when I saw that the duo was releasing a YA Contemporary-Romance, I snatched it up the second my eyes fell on the copy at my local library.

The thing about YA is that every author handles the topics differently. By which topics I mean drugs, sex, and rock-and-roll language. I look at YA as having different levels of age appropriate material. Most authors like to hover somewhere happily in the middle, where they can gently brush over the topics, implying what we all are thinking, but not getting into any nitty gritty dirtyFifty Shades type of deets. With more twenty-somethings (and beyond, considering I’ll be hitting the big 3-0 next year with absolutely no intentions of giving up my guilty pleasure) indulging in the world of YA Fiction, it comes as no surprise that sometimes we are looking for a bit more grit in our books. It’s great that Over You is able to fully immerse its characters into these relationships that are not the fluffy, let’s hold hands and skip down the street and kiss - but no tongues - when we are feeling frisky! Nope, we get great, well rounded characters here with Max, Zach, Ben, Bridget, Taylor, and Phoebe. 

Max, on the end side of a nasty breakup with society boy Hugo Tillman finds herself asking the age old question, “How do girls get over a break up cleanly and quickly?” Well Max’s answer is… Ex, Inc. a 3-person business run out of Max’s stepfathers garden apartment where Max calls home. Their mission? Help girls get over their recent exes and see them through their “Moment”, when they showcase all they’ve learned and let their exes know what a dumbass they were for leaving the girl. 

But of course, while helping other girls get over the guy, Max finds herself falling for one… Ben Cooper, the son of the owner of Cooper Baby - the company that Max’s mom orders all of her baby furniture from (since Mom is expecting a baby with stepdad).

I was pleasantly surprised with each page turn. The writing was the only aspect of the novel that I would say was both good but had moments where it was halting and didn’t necessarily flow well together. I would not say that it held back from the enjoyment of the novel, however; and I found pleasure with each new chapter - fully engaging in the story unfolding before me. 

So who should read this book? Fans of McLaughlin & Kraus, fans of Sex and the City or The Carrie Diaries, Gossip Girl, or anyone who loves NYC and stories set in the Big Apple and seeing how the “other half” lives.

(This review was originally posted on my Tumblr. See the review Here.)