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S S by J B

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Sorry, I did try with this but I didn't finish it.
I found the characters rather wooden and one-dimensional and the story was slow moving.
It has had rave reviews on Amazon though, so I realise I may be out of step.
Will be interested to see how other Fur Quits swappers get on with it.

I did finish it - it's a very easy read - but I too thought it was a bit crap, I'm afraid. I wasn't expecting to love it as I never really got on with Judy Blume as a teenager; I always found her characters impossible to relate to and this book is no exception. The first half of the book is definitely the strongest, with the description of the girls as teenagers, which I found quite enjoyable to read even though I wasn't a massive fan of the main characters. The second half of the book just gallops through their lives, and everyone seems to get married and have children within a couple of chapters without the author really going into details. Some of the secondary characters were very well-drawn - Abby, Lamb and Trish in particular - but ultimately this book left me cold.

Have to agree with the other two comments, I nearly gave it up but it was very easy to read one night when I couldn't sleep. Best bit was that it was set in the years when I was about the same age so I enjoyed identifying with the history. Thought that most of the characters were totally shallow and uninspiring.

The story had the potential to be so much deeper and more interesting.

Well, this was not taxing to read, but still took me a while, as I wasn't really interested in it. It felt very "teenage" throughout. The only character I was interested in was Abby. The rest were, as Lightshines said, really quite one-dimensional.

I actually really enjoyed this although I don't disagree with a lot of the comments above. I do like a bit of light-hearted escapism now and again though, and I read this book in about 12 hours while feeding DD and playing trains yet again with DS, so no complaints from me.

I enjoyed the teenage feel to it, particularly, as steamedtreaclesponge says, the first half - it brought back some memories of how powerful and overwhelming those first autonomous friendships can be. But the second half did come across as rather written by numbers - hardworking, reserved girl vs manic pixie dream girl etc.

I didn't finish this. I tried several times but couldn't connect to the story. I haven't read Judy Bloom since my teenage angst years and reading this seemed to make me depressed.

Blume not Bloom

I'm pretty much on the same lines as others. I also quite like a bit of escapism but this felt like a teenage story slightly extended to try and include an older audience. For Caitlin to be such an archetypal screw up, I thought there needed to be a much more insightful depiction of her parents and home life, not just a bland separated parents, "oh but at least I was there" dysfunctional mother etc. And the whole Bru thing almost felt like a last minute brainwave 'shock' to wrap up the story, it just hadn't had enough depth previously.

It has made me dread the years when DD will be devouring Judy Blume!

I didn't mind this book and did finish it but it is a very easy read.

Agree with what the others said about the characters and would not have chosen this book for myself.