Justine's Thoughts: The Book of Luke by Jenny O'Connell

The Book of Luke
By Jenny O’Connell

Pages:

291

Book Description:

Emily Abbott has always been considered the Girl Most Likely to Be Nice - but lately being nice hasn’t done her any good. Her parents have decided to move the family from Chicago back to their hometown of Boston in the middle of Emily’s senior year. Only Emily’s first real boyfriend, Sean, is in Chicago, and so is her shot at class valedictorian and early admission to the Ivy League. What’s a nice girl to do?

Then Sean dumps Emily on moving day and her father announces he’s staying behind in Chicago “to tie up loose ends,” and Emily decides that what a nice girl needs to do is to stop being nice.

She reconnects with her best friends in Boston, Josie and Lucy, only to discover that they too have been on the receiving end of some glaring Guy Don’ts. So when the girls have to come up with something to put in the senior class time capsule, they know exactly what to do. They’ll create a not-so-nice reference guide for future generations of guys - an instruction book that teaches them the right way to treat girls.

But when her friends draft Emily to test out their tips on Luke Preston - the hottest, most popular guy in school, who just broke up with Josie by email - Emily soon finds that Luke is the trickiest of test subjects...and that even a nice girl like Emily has a few things to learn about love.

A quote:

The Guy’s Guide Tip #46:
People can have nicknames.
Body parts should not.

Any thoughts:

• There’s a tip at the very beginning of each chapter, and I found myself laughing at times. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Oh, yes. So very true.” It must have been tough to write this novel; you’d have to know a lot about guys.
• Our heroine, Emily, was very relatable. She had always been known as the girl who was always nice and used her manners. And she did this all because she cared too much of what other people thought. That’s where I thought I could relate. In the end, I’d have to give her props, because she went through so much and still managed to make decisions.
• What I liked was that a lot of things were explained. Well, mostly because Emily had to write in a journal about the ‘test’. Still, it gave me a better understanding of Emily as a character and the situations she was in.
• The plot reminded me very much of a movie I recently watched, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (I really, really liked it). What they had in common was the whole ‘testing the guy but it will eventually result to a disaster’ thing. I liked the book better, though.
• The way the story was told was funny. I’d definitely read more books written by Jenny O’Connell (Plan B is one of them).