Stephanie
Written on Jul 29, 2019
I felt for Jessi in this one! I don't know that I would have had the guts to go full on Parent Trap on a family member but I respect the urge to do so! I have to say that I'm surprised that rules weren't explained or clarified before someone took over caring for children but then again it was family and free of charge so maybe that's why everything happened the way that it did. Either way I really did like this book! I love the homey-ness of Jessi and her family!
I have never wanted to punch a guy (fictional even) more so than Travis. Poor Dawn didn't even see that boy coming! I would 100% be a Richard in this situation! This tells me more about how my parenting skills would be derived from my father than I want to admit. But there you go. I just wonder if Dawn hadn't seen Travis with another girl if she would have continued down that path. I'm really hoping Dawn remembers Travis and his creepy ass in the future!
This book sort of returns us to the sweet storylines of the BSC! This book had a bit of a mystery side to it. Kristy has a sweet admirer that has started leaving notes for her. And then it gets creepy and not so sweet. I'm kind of surprised but Kristy kept quite a bit of the whole ordeal to herself, especially as it escalated. It wasn't until her friends called her out that she confided in them entirely. It wasn't terribly hard to figure out when the switch in the notes occurred but man did it remind me hardcore of the days when everything was so extreme! I am glad to see Shannon making more and more of an appearance in the BSC storyline!
I saw quite a bit of sarcasm on this subject on GoodReads. Clearly these reviews were written by people who have never had a caregiver who has suddenly lost a job. I think Martin did a good job covering the subject. Mallory didn't over-react for a child her age. I would have been in the exact same spot. I think Mallory did a great job communicating with her family. Anytime a family goes from a comfortable income to no income it is scary. The more I read Mallory's books the more I like them.
Now I will say in this book I had several eye rolling moments. The girls are now making up words and it just sounds so dumb. I'm trying desperately to remember if we did the same thing at that age. Instead of saying "far out" they call things "distant" to notate how cool something is. I can handle that....sort of. The one that got me was "dibbly" instead of "incredibly". It just sounded so dumb. It was dibbly nice that she did that for me. *eye roll*