Swoon at Your Own Risk: A Young Adult Romance About Summer Crushes, Ex-Boyfriends, and Being Yourself - Softcover

Salter, Sydney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0152066497 ISBN 13: 9780152066499

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2010

Synopsis

You’d think Polly Martin would have all the answers when it comes to love—after all, her grandmother is the famous syndicated advice columnist Miss Swoon. But after a junior year full of dating disasters, Polly has sworn off boys. This summer, she’s going to focus on herself for once. So Polly is happy when she finds out Grandma is moving in—think of all the great advice she’ll get.

But Miss Swoon turns out to be a man-crazy sexagenarian! How can Polly stop herself from falling for Xander Cooper, the suddenly-hot skateboarder who keeps showing up while she’s working at Wild Waves water park, when Grandma is picking up guys at the bookstore and flirting with the dishwasher repairman?

No advice column can prepare Polly for what happens when she goes on a group camping trip with three too many ex-boyfriends and the tempting Xander. Polly is forced to face her feelings and figure out if she can be in love—and still be herself.

About this title

About the Author

SYDNEY SALTER is the author of My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters and Jungle Crossing. She lives in Utah. www.sydneysalter.com

Reviews

Grade 9 Up—Flirty Polly Martin has sworn off boys after five failed relationships in her junior year. Now she's working at the Wild Waves water park for the summer and faces distractions like her boss; a good-looking ex; and a regular customer, shirtless Xander, who makes her heart patter. Increasingly confused about how to interact with the opposite sex, she chooses heavy petting over relationships. She turns to her grandmother, newspaper-columnist Miss Swoon, for advice. But wisecracking, sexual-innuendo-spewing Polly won't get anywhere until she can learn to deal with her emotions and her parents' divorce. At the start of the narrative, Polly's bad-girl act seems a little over-the-top but the reasons for her behavior slowly emerge halfway through the book. Each chapter ends with a letter to Miss Swoon, blog posts from a rumormonger coworker, and musings from love interest Xander. All in all, this book is a light read with an emotional awakening and enough romance to keep fans of the genre interested.—Shawna Sherman, Hayward Public Library, CA
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Boy crazy in a house full of women, Polly is facing a summer nightmare of working a crummy water park job being supervised by an ex—and in a bathing suit no less! Hoping to learn from her advice-columnist grandmother, Polly swears off guys and tries to improve herself by following “Miss Swoon's” affirmations and attempting to mend a rift with her best friend, Jane. Unfortunately, skater/poet (and formerly weird neighbor kid) Xander keeps showing up at the park to babysit relatives and catches Polly's eye. Polly uses humor to deflect most real conversations, which makes her the life of the party but leaves her lacking in the serious-relationship department. What appears to be a frothy summer confection delves into some heftier emotions as the underlying issues motivating Polly's actions, as well as those of her mom and grandma, are uncovered. Each chapter ends with snippets from Miss Swoon's advice columns, Xander's poetic observations about Polly, or entries from a coworker's gossip blog. Grades 7-9. --Heather Booth

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152066497
• ISBN 13: 9780152066499
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360