City Love (City Love, #1)

by Susane Colasanti

[jeannamichel]

It is the summer in New York City. Three hopeful girls, soon-to-be-freshman at university, plan to have the time of their lives in the city that never sleeps.
Before I get into too much of the book, you must take a look at the cover. I’m talking about the inside cover. It’s so pretty. NYC. The view from the rooftop. The whole cover gets you in the mood to read about how awesome New York is.
And, unfortunately, City Love does not read like anything else besides these two things: 1.) three girls with problems go on dates and 2.) a love letter to how awesome NYC is.
These three girls were extremely difficult to tell apart. Alternating perspectives, especially with three people every chapter, can get a bit confusing. Each girl had some problem in their past, which I am hoping for clarification in the next novel. Coincidentally, each girl moved to the city and within less than a week they all had boyfriends. I expected some girl power and independent characters, following some of the latest trends in recent YA but these girls fell short. For example, Sadie has a lovely quote above her bed: Just around the Corner. This cute saying could be interpreted in many ways. I thought about dreams or goals but Sadie thought about a boy. Most of the plot was just meant to be taken lightly. It’s a good beach read, a quick read. It was entertaining, even though there were some downsides.
NYC is awesome and I love when books talk about real places. I can actually go to the Strand or to the High Line. While reading, I made a list of almost all the places Colasanti mentioned because I definitely love the city as much as she does and want to check out all of the places. When I was first starting off, I thought City Love was going to be super predictable. The three girls started going on these dates and I was thinking that they would all end up breaking up and the book would end with something like: Who needs true love, when you can have city love? Yes, I was expecting that level of cheese. It is called City Love, after all. I was happy when it didn’t end that way.
Still, I wasn’t quite happy with how it ended either. I am not a fan on contemporary series, nor did I know that City Love was book one of a series. I have to wait for book two to release to find out what happens next? Nothing was solved. Couldn’t you have given me some kind of hint of how it would go? Colasanti left her readers hanging. It is like when you are watching a show and the two main characters are about to kiss for the first time and they are two inches from each other’s face and then: TO BE CONTINUED. What? You know they are going to kiss but you have to make sure. That was City Love.
I have to admit it. Even though I own most of Colasanti’s books, I have not read any of them. I didn’t know what to expect. However, Colasanti’s writing makes for a fast read but still filled with enough quotes you would love to put on bumper stickers.

Overall, City Love is a light, entertaining read. If you live in NYC, you might want to check out some of the places the book recommends. Colasanti will make readers fall in love with the city and have them looking up so they won’t miss a thing.