Bloom by Elizabeth Scott

2 Stars -- I didn't like it :(

I finished this days ago and didn't post. I can blame it on several factors: the holidays; I'm a procrastinator; and I just didn't like this book and didn't want to write about it.

Bloom comes across as a typical teen love story in the back-ad and description. I had it on hold at the library for ever, which I assumed meant the book was really popular. I was rather looking forward to it, because surely a book that's hard to get a hold of should be worth it, right?

Not so much.

Lauren is an average teen girl. Except she's dating the most-popular and most-attractive guy in her school. Her relationship with him is perfect. He treats her like a perfect gentleman would. Due to his religious beliefs, he doesn't even try to pressure her to have sex.

Lauren says her best friend isn't her best friend. They don't have anything in common (except their best friend boyfriends).

And then Evan steps back into Lauren's life. They lived together once when her father was dating his mother. When that relationship went south, Evan disappeared, and now Lauren can't get him out of her head.

It's a pretty standard set-up for a teen novel.

What really, really upsets me, though, is how completely internally focused Lauren is, how self-centered and immature she comes across. Her pseudo-best friend is clearly having issues at home that any normal person, once they were clued in, would attempt to help out with. Her passion for Evan would cause a normal teen girl to drop her current boyfriend in a second. The author plays it off as Lauren being worried about what others would think, but she has also spent the entire book pointing out how Lauren doesn't really care what other people think about her. She knows she's not popular except through her boyfriend, and she doesn't let it get to her. If she doesn't really want to be popular, why would she stay with the boyfriend when she finds someone better?

There's also the storyline about Lauren and her father. Her mother (his wife) abandoned them when Lauren was six years old. This is the cause for a lot of Lauren's low self-esteem. For the majority of the story, Lauren's father is oblivious, choosing to work rather than spend time with Lauren. Except toward the end of the story, he starts coming home more. This culminates in a "heart-to-heart" with Lauren that goes nowhere. He says, "Your mother loved you," and they cry, and it's emotional--except it's not. It's a complete flop as far as heart-to-hearts go. Nothing is solved; nothing is accomplished.

I really disliked this book. It's like the author tried to bring up deeper issues and just couldn't follow through. I hated the main character, and I know that wasn't the author's intention. She wanted her to be a typical teen girl that any other girl could relate to. And while teens certainly are self-centered, immature, and oblivious, they usually don't cut off everyone they know. And if they do, the conclusion isn't that some tears and hugs make things better. You'd lose your friends.

Don't read this book... unless you want to figure out how NOT to write your teen character.