Search - Dedication

While I enjoyed the 80's references and could relate to bits and pieces of the plot and the characters, (having once been a 17 year old girl with a first love...) the writing style was laborious and made me want to scream "GET ON WITH IT". I felt as if I had read the story before, and it did not seem all that original to me. There is a lot of filler which bogged down the storytelling flow. It just wasn't an overall satisfying read and it tended to be quite predictible.

Beware the "F" Bomb. Wouldn't it be refreshing if an author didn't have to resort to this just to make a point. And I am quite sure that when I was 30, my mother and I never screamed this at each other.

Bouncing back and forth between her 80's adolescence years and 2005. 30 year old Kate tells the story of her needing revenge against Jake Sharpe, her teenage first love whom she is swearing revenge on to the point that he wished he never existed. Jake left Kate and his old band suddenly to become a mega singer leaving everyone in his dust. Kate blames her lack of life in her 20's to the fact that she never quite got to end her relationship with Jake and the unrequited love that she carried for year. Yada Yada Yada.

The book bogged down in the middle for me because Kate really didn't seem to grow up very much between her 14 year old self and her 30 year old self. There were quite a few funny moments and it was nice to recollect my high school years.

Dedication tells the story of Kate, a woman determined on avenging her once broken heart against Jake, the man who was her first love, who held her up in some of her hardest times, and then left her behind to make a future for himself. And the stories he told in his songs were based on her life.

What Kate doesn’t expect the feelings of hurt and betrayal from others, feelings that have little to nothing to do with Jake that also come to the surface, feelings that she was never able to deal with because her feelings for Jake got in the way.

She also doesn’t expect that when she places herself once again in Jake’s path the possibility of getting a second chance at a first love. Is it possible to get back what they once had? And if it is, what happens when the peace of a vacation, a time outside of real life, fades away and real life shines through? And when it comes down to it, is that second chance really what she wants?

I thought this novel was really beautifully written. It alternated between the present and the past, which allowed for a really interesting presentation of the story, allowing the conflict to unfold with great timing, not letting too much go at one time, or too soon, but not keeping the reader so much in suspense that they lose interest. The voice of the main character (and narrator) was really engaging and the characters all seemed pretty well fleshed out.

I found this book difficult to follow at first but once I read a few chapters I started to follow the authors flow. After that it was an easy read for a weekend. It is definitely not classic literature but if you want some tasty brain candy this will fit the bill. Warning: the "f" word is used liberally, which I could have done without.

Women: If you've ever been in a relationship with a boy who other people raised their eyebrows at, said wasn't "good enough" for you, or disappointed and thrilled you repeatedly, constantly, over and over ... you will understand this book.

If not, you won't enjoy it. Actually, you may not enjoy it either way--I definitely squirmed in discomfort a few times--but you will feel like somebody out there understands what you went through/are going through.

Without spoiling things: the ending is...if not satisfying, at least it doesn't cheat. This is an easy book to read, and funny, though slightly annoying in structure (it alternates chapters--one in the past, one in the present). It also neglects the one scene that would seem to be the crux of the entire relationship, which seemed an odd narrative choice to me.

This book seemed to flow and I was really drawn into it at the beginning. Then, something changed ... perhaps the direction of the plot line, the actions of the 30 year old main character reverting to teenage hormone-driven decisions, maybe it was the narration in the middle . . . I'm not sure. It lost its luster somewhere in the last third of the book. However, the twist at the very end did redeem it, since it's not quite the typical chick lit ending. I *LOVED* the 80s references, which make it worthwhile to read the chapters of the book that take place in the 80s-90s, especially since the main character is the same age as I me. I could really relate. Some parts were laugh-out-loud funny, but some parts I had to re-read because I wasn't quite sure where the narration/dialogue was going or where that reference had come from.