Book Review: What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

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Title: What My Mother Doesn't Know
Author: Sonya Sones
Series: What My Mother Doesn't Know #1
Genre: YA - Contemporary, Poetry
Original Release Date: October 1, 2001
Publisher: Turtleback; 1st Simon Pulse Ed edition (April 1, 2003)
Pages: 259 (Hardcover)
Source: Library
Rating: ★★★☆☆

My name is Sophie.
This book is about me.
It tells
the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love, too.

It's not that I'm boy crazy.
It's just that even though
I'm almost fifteen
I've been having sort of a hard time
trying to figure out the difference
between love and lust.
It's like
my mind
and my body
and my heart
just don't seem to be able to agree
on anything.

My Thoughts

This book was written from the point of view of a ninth grade girl. I found it fairly difficult to identify with her, but I haven't been in ninth grade for a while. The more I try to look back at myself from ninth grade, the more I can identify with the character - I just wish I could have found that connection when I was reading it.

Because I struggled to connect with the main character, I had no trouble connecting to her relationship with her best friends. That is almost exactly how I remember my high school friendship with my own best friend - right down to the way they wrote emails and notes to each other. I loved the romance in this book. It felt genuine and adorable. It definitely made me smile more than once.

The struggle I had with this book was that the story didn't feel cohesive. It started one way, then went in a completely different direction. I almost felt like the author tried to write one story and didn't quite like it so she moved onto a different plot, but instead of starting over she just tacked it on to the existing story. By the time I got through the first half of the book, I was heavily considering moving on to a different book. The reason I gave it 3 stars is because the second half of the book completely redeemed the beginning. I loved what the story progressed into. I'm actually looking forward to reading the next book in the duology!

Overall

If you like books written in verse, you should definitely read this book. If you don't particularly like books written in verse, this isn't the one you should start with. While I did enjoy the main character's relationship with her best friends and the romance that finally happened at the end, it's not on my "must read" list. It was a quick read, though, so if you want to boost your numbers for your Goodreads challenge I say go for it.