GUEST POST AND REVIEW: Jessica Verdi, Author of What You Left Behind

Synopsis: It’s all Ryden’s fault. If he hadn’t gotten Meg pregnant, she would have never stopped her chemo treatments and would still be alive. Instead, he’s failing fatherhood one dirty diaper at a time. And it’s not like he’s had time to grieve while struggling to care for their infant daughter, start his senior year, and earn the soccer scholarship he needs to go to college.

The one person who makes Ryden feel like his old self is Joni. She’s fun and energetic—and doesn’t know he has a baby. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to keep his two worlds separate. Finding one of Meg’s journals only stirs up old emotions, and Ryden’s convinced Meg left other notebooks for him to find, some message to help his new life make sense. But how is he going to have a future if he can’t let go of the past?

My review: I was fascinated by the idea of a YA novel written from the male point of view, especially by a female author. Jessica does a fantastic job of getting into the mind of a teenaged boy. Ryden has so much going on in his life--mourning his girlfriend, raising his daughter, holding down a job, going to school, being on the soccer team--and we get insight into his thoughts on all of it.

Sometimes I felt sorry for him, and other times I just wanted to shake him...much like how I feel about most ACTUAL teenagers. The entire cast of characters in this book are realistically written and very believable. Ryden's mother is always there to support him, but she also makes him be responsible for his daughter as much as possible. His friends are unsure how to react to him, with the exception of Meg's sister and Meg's best friend, both of whom are straightforward with him, good or bad. 

There are a lot of ups and downs to this story, but the ending was very satisfying. I'd love to read a sequel, several years in the future, to see how things are going, not just for Ryden and Hope, but for the other characters as well.

My rating: Four stars

GUEST POST FROM JESSICA VERDI

My question: How different was it to write this novel from the point of view of the opposite sex?

Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Teresa, and for your great question! What You Left Behind is my first book from the POV of a boy. I absolutely fell in love with Ryden as I was writing, and I felt like I really knew him. In so many ways, it was easier to write from his POV than from the POV of a female narrator as I did in my first two books. I think, because he's a boy and I'm not, I may have subconsciously felt more freedom to just take his character wherever it needed to go, because, since we were already so different, there was no element of "me" clinging to him. No "Well, I would or wouldn't do that," etc. So it became more of an “anything’s possible” process, which was really fun.

I'm glad to have written a book from the POV of a boy because there are plenty of boy readers out there who need to see themselves represented in literature, and as something more than just the love interest of the female main character. (Not that there’s anything wrong with a good, juicy romance!) There just seems to be a shortage of male narrators in YA lately, and that may or may not be related to the fallacy that “boys don’t read.” Boys absolutely read, and they need to see themselves on the page just as much as the rest of us do. I love that there’s a boy (and only a boy) on the cover of the book, and I'm hopeful boy readers will pick it up and find Ryden interesting and identifiable.

About the author

Jessica Verdi lives in Brooklyn, NY, and received her MFA in Writing for Children from The New School. She loves seltzer, Tabasco sauce, TV, vegetarian soup, flip-flops, and her dog. Visit her at jessicaverdi.com and follow her on Twitter @jessverdi.

BOOKSPARKS SUMMER READING CHALLENGE: Summer Secrets by Jane Green

Destination: Cross the pond to London.

Synopsis: June, 1998: At twenty seven, Catherine Coombs, also known as Cat, is struggling. She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. Her lunchtimes consist of several glasses of wine at the bar downstairs in the office, her evenings much the same, swigging the free booze and eating the free food at a different launch or party every night. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that.

June, 2014: Cat has finally come to the end of herself. She no longer drinks. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, to the gorgeous summer community where the women she once called family still live. Despite her sins, will they welcome her again? What Cat doesn’t realize is that these women, her real father’s daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone’s need for revenge.

My review: A fascinating page-turner, this novel shares a look into the world of an alcoholic. The novel starts with Cat refusing to admit she has a problem, at least until she finds herself in a situation that is definitely her "rock bottom." From there, we see Cat in recovery. Not only are there descriptions of AA meetings, but we also get to see Cat working through the twelve steps. Much of it deals with Cat's work on the ninth step, making amends, specifically with her half-sisters.

All of the characters are very well-developed, and the settings are exquisitely described. It's a great summer read if you are looking for a family drama with life lessons for everyone. 

**I received a copy of this book from BookSparks as part of the Summer Reading Challenge, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

My rating: Five stars

About the author

Jane Green's fifteenth novel, Tempting Fate, is soon to be released; she is the author of fourteen previous New York Times Bestselling novels. Initially known for writing about single thirty-somethings, she has gone on to write mature stories about real wo

A former feature writer for the Daily Express in the UK, Green took a leap in faith when she left, in 1996, to freelance and work on a novel. Seven months later, there was a bidding war for her first book, Straight Talking, the saga of a single career girl looking for the right man. The novel was an immediate top-ten bestseller in England, and Green was an overnight success.

Now in her forties, Green has graduated to more complex, character-driven novels that explore the concerns of real women's lives, from marriage (The Other Woman) to motherhood (Another Piece of My Heart) to divorce, stepchildren, affairs, and most recently, midlife crises (Family Pictures and Tempting Fate).

She joined the ABC News team to write A Modern Fairytale - their first enhanced digital book - about the history of Royal marriages, then joined ABC News Radio as a live correspondent covering Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton. She has written a micro-series for Dove starring Alicia Keyes, many short stories, and has contributed to various anthologies, as well as regularly appearing on television shows including Good Morning America, The Martha Stewart show, and The Today Show.

Together with writing books and blogs, she contributes to various publications, both online and print, including Huffington Post, The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan and Self, has taught at writers conferences, and does regular keynote speaking.

A foodie and passionate cook, Green filled one of her books, Promises to Keep, with recipes culled from her own collection. She says she only cooks food that is “incredibly easy, but has to look as if you have slaved over a hot stove for hours.” This is because she has six children, and has realised that “when you have six children, nobody ever invites you anywhere.”

Most weekends see her cooking for a minimum of twenty people in her home in Westport, Connecticut, where she lives with her husband and their blended family. When she is not writing, cooking, gardening, filling her house with friends and herding chickens, she is usually thanking the Lord for caffeine-filled energy drinks.