Mundie Moms

Friday, March 4, 2011

Book Review- Rich and Mad

by William Nicholson
Published by Egmont USA
4 Stars- I enjoyed it!

Synopsis (from Egmont): Maddy is a sixteen-year-old who likes

a boy in her theater club.
Joe is cute and popular and, incredibly,
sending signals that he likes her back.
Or does he? Isn’t Joe going out with Gemma?
Rich has a crush on Grace, and he even sends a letter
of recommendation from the pope to get
her to pay attention to him. But Grace
doesn’t appreciate that tactic. . . .
The problem is, in life’s messy mixed signals of friends and lies
and sex and status, true love can be hard to find. And the real thing doesn’t always come in the most obvious package, either. Is it possible that the person you never thought of that way is the one who will ultimately touch your heart?


I was inexplicably sucked into this book from the first few chapters, I really don’t know why, the plot wasn’t unique I’ve read about first love, first everything, many times before but this one had a little something. I think it had to do with the writing, for me it flowed easily and even though it had an immense amount of dialogue through most of the book I found myself really liking the story and the main characters.


We get to see the story unfold from the point of view of Rich and Maddy, they are both “in love” with the wrong person, and I used quotation marks because to me it seemed like infatuation instead of love. I did find that I could relate to them because I remember feeling that way in high school, thinking I was in love with someone that I never even spoken to just because they were really hot or had certain qualities, of course I know NOW that it wasn’t love but I found myself relating to both of these characters. I really loved Rich, more than any of the others, he was sweet and vulnerable, I just felt like giving him a big hug through most of the book. Maddy seemed very naïve at the beginning which was a little frustrating and I felt like slapping her sometimes, but I loved that she toughen up a little after she gets “heartbroken” and starts looking at love and guys in a whole different way.

Now I want to warn you that this book will not be for everyone, yeah it’s one of those that you’ll either hate or love. It has a lot of language and very “detailed” sex scenes in it that might make you cringe or look behind you to make sure nobody is reading over your shoulder. It’s definitely not for younger teens, I wouldn’t even let my 30something year old sister borrow it because she’s not used to these type of books.

I was able to overlook all of that because I enjoyed the story and the characters, I liked that we get to see them unexpectedly grow closer to each other and fall in love. There’s also a lot more to the story than just the sex and unrequited love, there’s lots of deceit and lies and unpredictable twists to the plot that when you think everything has already been resolved the author throws one more surprise at you and I personally didn’t see it coming. Rich and Mad wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t filled with romance, it's not really something I would call a love story. It was a more realistic and definitely not sugarcoated version of teenagers and the many mistakes they make, the eye openers about life that they go through, the wanting to be madly in love, that I myself remember feeling when I was in high school. It won't be right for everyone but I ended up liking it a whole lot.

6 comments:

  1. "Now I want to warn you that this book will not be for everyone, yeah it’s one of those that you’ll either hate or love. It has a lot of language and very “detailed” sex scenes in it that might make you cringe or look behind you to make sure nobody is reading over your shoulder. It’s definitely not for younger teens, I wouldn’t even let my 30something year old sister borrow it because she’s not used to these type of books."

    Ah...this probably isn't for me then. I like my books "clean." But great review!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great review Cynthia! Thank you so much! I really appreciate your warning. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I loved this book! It wasn't the typical teen romance. It was more realistic of teen life in my opinion. Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great review and thank you for posting it! I was pulled in by the cover, but I'm not sure if I would actually like the book. It sounds like a realistic view on teen romance, though.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is this the same William Nicholson who wrote the "Wind on Fire" trilogy?

    Also, I'm glad that this books seems very realistic. A lot of adults don't (want to) acknowledge that some teens do have sex and swear. A lot. So many books these days are sugarcoated, and I'm glad to hear this one isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I wanted to read this book from the moment I saw this cover, but I still haven't. I've seen mixed reviews for it, but I'm happy you pointed out how it is a little too detailed at times, but also how the overall story is realistic. I'm normally fine with swearing and some sex in YA, so I will definitely keep this one on my wishlist. Great review!

    ReplyDelete

Labels