Dedication Review

Title: Dedication

Authors: Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

Pages: 305
 Publisher: Washington Square Press

Publication Date: March 2, 2010

My Edition: Paperback

Reading Level: Adult

Received From: Engleman & Co.

Summary from Goodreads:

Kate Hollis's ex-boyfriend's face plasters newsstands and TV, the Internet, and the multiplex. Jake Sharpe is one of the biggest recording stars on the planet, and every song he's famous for is about Kate. For over a decade his soundtrack has chased her -- from the gym to the supermarket, from the dentist's office to the bars. Now thirty-year-old Kate gets the call that Jake has finally landed back in their Vermont hometown for an MTV special. The moment she has been waiting for has arrived.

On the eve of their prom, Jake Sharpe vanished, resurfacing when his song "Losing" -- about his and Kate's first sexual experience -- shot to the top of the Billboard charts. And the hits kept coming, each more personal than the one before.

Now Kate gets her chance to confront Jake and reclaim her past. But after eleven years of enduring protracted and far-from-private heartbreak, everyone in Kate's life has a stake in how this plays out. Kate must risk betraying the friends Jake abandoned, the bandmates whose songs he plundered, and her own parents, who fear this will dredge up a shared past more painful than any of them want to acknowledge. But after getting the call in the dead of night and jumping on a plane, can she turn back now?

Newsweek dubbed The Nanny Diaries "a national phenomenon" and the New Republic proclaimed, "Thank God for Citizen Girl." Now McLaughlin and Kraus have written a poignant, humorous tale about modern celebrity obsession and coming of age during the divorce boom. With flawless depictions of the 1980s, a charismatic heroine, and their signature biting wit, the authors offer up another lively and hilarious tale of a smart young woman looking for satisfaction in the chaos of contemporary culture.


Review:

Dedication was a funny, entertaining novel about a woman who has to relive her private teenage relationship every time she hears one of her ex-boyfriend's famous songs. I really liked how the story switched from her teenage years to the current year around Christmas 2005. It was a very pleasurable book to read and was very hard to put down. I read the last 200 pages non-stop, and altogether I really liked the entire book. 

I was really surprised by the ending but felt happy with her decision in the end. The characters, especially Katie (teenager name)/Kate (adult name), were great and pretty easy to relate to. It was interesting to read about Katie's and Jake's relationship through their middle school and high school years, and then find out what happens when they finally see each other again, thirteen years later.  

Dedication is now my favorite Adult book by Emma and Nicola because it seemed more YA than Adult, and it was much easier to follow. The Nanny Dairies was good, but Dedication just had a little more entertainment and drama/romance to it. So far, I have enjoyed reading their books, and I especially look forward to hopefully more Young Adult books by them in the future!

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