Gingerbread

Gingerbreadby Rachel CohnThis book purchase is all Jocelyn's fault over at Teen Book Review. Why? Well she posted an interview with the author, Rachel Cohn and I was enchanted by the covers of her books. (I know, that cover thing again!). Actually I was enchanted by the cover of You Know Where to Find Me and then looked the author up on amazon.ca.The cover I have here for Gingerbread, is not the current cover that most places are selling, but it happened to be the one I found in the store and I have to say I like this one much better than the other one. My husband keeps calling it "Abby: The Book" in reference to Abby from NCIS.I have to admit that had I seen this cover in the store before actually knowing about the book I would have picked it up. I totally need boots like that. *drool*But I digress... So sixteen-year old Cyd Charisse lives with her mom Nancy, her step-dad Sid and her two half-siblings in San Francisco her biological father, Frank real-dad, lived in New York City, she has met him once, when she was five in an airport and he gave her the best gingerbread cookies she'd ever had and an old rag doll he picked up in the airport gift shop. She names the doll Gingerbread after the cookies and the meeting with her father.Now she is back at home in San Francisco after being kicked out of her boarding school in New Hampshire for being caught with her ex-boyfriend in a compromising situation. It's in San Fransisco that Cyd Charisse meets her new boyfriend Shrimp, while doing community service in a Senior's home, find love, loses it, fights with her parents and ends up going to spend the rest of the summer in New York with Frank real-dad. The first time she will see him in person again since she was five.This book is about so much more than teen angst, though my crappy summary doesn't really do that justice. I am horrible at summarizing books, I couldn't write a decent book report to save my life when I was in school. I'm much better at telling people what the book made me FEEL than what it's about.The main character is very likable, and similar to Violet in the Melissa Walker books, she's just trying to figure life out at a young age as she's presented with all sorts of choices and the struggle between being an adult and a kid. Teenage years are rough, especially the later ones.Rachel Cohn writes a great story and great characters. It took me a little less than 2 hours to read the book from start to finish and I fell asleep with a crying-headache as the book had me in tears for the last few chapters. I know it's a good teen girl book when I cry. heh.