Book Review: In Your Room

Title In Your Room
Author Jordanna Fraiberg
Genre YA Commercial Fiction
Rating C-

Summary The families of Molly Hill and Charlie Richards do a house swap, and what starts as a few preliminary emails to discuss caring for a cat in the area, turns into a relationship where two people who seem like they're wildly different find out that they're really the same.

First Line "Dear Molly: My name is Charlie and I'm staying in your house for the summer. More precisely, I'm staying in your room."

Review This was a cute storyline--not something I had seen before in a book (it's been done in movies before)--with fun characters who were interesting and kind of quirky.

I rated this story so low because the writing was just... meh. The dialogue didn't sound like teenager dialogue. She used third person narration and alternating POV's, but some of the description was... hokey. When Mollie is experiencing an amazing natural high from biking around, the descriptions of it weren't that compelling. I wanted to care about this relationship, but the writing was kind of weak.

On the flip side, during the climax, when Charlie is confused and missing something (I'm trying to avoid a spoiler), I felt a lump in my throat. That part was good (and redeeming for her literary grade).

Recommendation People who enjoy stories about long distance relationships and/or love stories between people who come from different worlds.