Customer Reviews

Dedication

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If someone you loved had wronged you so intensely that it changed the course of your life, would you seek revenge? Or forgiveness? Or just closure? This is the central theme of writing duo Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus's excellent new novel, Dedication. The pair spin an entirely believable tale about spurned love and anger that burns unabated for thirteen years, and they bring it full circle with an excellent ending.

Katie Hollis first falls "in love" with Jake Sharpe in sixth grade, and their relationship is a series of ups and downs over the course of their school years. Told in chapters that alternate between 2005 and those growing up years, we follow the development of the characters as Jake begins to realize his love of music and Katie's family life falls apart. Then the unthinkable happens: Jake hits the big time, and he leaves Katie and his friends behind, not even recognizing his fellow band mates' contributions on his first hit single and thus denying them any of the significant royalties. When Jake finally returns to his hometown 13 years on, Katie is alerted and, in true hell hath no fury form, she finds herself ready to confront him and "make him regret his entire existence"...or does she? Can she actually let the past go in order to form a future?

This is a page-turner of a novel, with lots of little 80s details thrown in and an enduring love story as the backbone. It will make you question what you would do if facing the same obsession; would you be the bigger person or would you fight back for the life taken from you? And is it all worth it? Definitely a good summer read, and a heart-wrenching one at that. Recommended.

I absolutely loved it. It has all the humor and intelligence of the Nanny Diaries and Citizen Girl and deals with a topic everyone can relate to: the desire to be able to go back in time and right the cosmic wrongs of adolescence. While this book could be very funny while staying on that topic, it manages to weave in a very real and complicated family dynamic that adds a deep level of complexity to the book. The book splices from the past to the present and yet never loses the reader who is eagerly awaiting the outcomes of the interconnected plots. I loved it and would highly recommend it!

This book was great and so much better than their previous, "Citizen Girl"! Not hefty lit or complete fluff, for me it was the perfect in-between. Loved the characters (and their true-to-life angst and stroll-down-memory-lane bad fashion moments!)and her missed connections with Jake over the years, culminating in losing her heart to him and his abandonment of her the night of their high school senior prom, on his way to find fame and fortune in the music business.
I thought the authors did a great job with their history playing itself out in Jake's songs, and gave you a chance to envision how you too would react if you were given the opportunity to resolve things with The One Who Got Away. I was torn about how I wanted it to end, but found myself very satisfied with the way it played out!

Let me just start out by saying that this book is very well written. However, if you are looking for a light, fluffy, chick lit book, this is not the one for you. I was under the impression that the book would be a pick me up, but the issues it tackles with relationships between the main character and the angtagonist ex, and her and her family, and her and her friends, are anything but light. All in all, the book upset me. It stressed me out reading about all the problems this girl had and that the large ones are put on the same scale with smaller problems. It was so frustrating! And then in the end there is no satisfaction.
I don't think I would have been as upset had I known what I was getting. Now you know.

I am big fan of McLaughlin and Kraus' previous two novels (yes, I actually liked "Citizen Girl"!), so it shouldn't have come as any surprise to me that I completely fell in love with "Dedication". Their latest novel is without a doubt their best, showing a level of down-to-earth humor, maturity, and depth of character that was missing in their previous works. Not as chick-lit as "Nanny Diaries", and not as scattered and abstract as "Citizen Girl", "Dedication" shows that these authors have really grown in their craft.

At first I wasn't too sure if I liked the alternating chapters, where one chapter is set in modern-day, and the next chapter is set in the past. However, as the novel progresses, and Katie and Jake's modern-day relationship crescendos, and we get to see the growing strength of the relationship of their youth, it somehow just feels right that the book is laid out the way it is.

I found myself being just as exasperated and in love with Jake as Katie was, and I was moved by the growth in the adult Katie as she dealt with Jake and her family and friends and life. The early encounters of Jake and Katie, filled with the awkwardness, excitement, and all-encompassing obsession of first love, are written so beautifully and so truthfully, I just could not put the book down.

The issues that Katie deals with regarding her friends and family only make the novel that much richer for me, as it creates even more depth in her character, and maturity in the novel. Katie deals with life, love, and family in a funny, logical way, that I really identified with.

There were a few typos, and several awkwardly-worded phrases that had me scratching my head, but overall, the novel was superb. By far, "Dedication" is McLaughlin and Kraus' best novel to date, and has earned a permanent place on my bookcase!

Grade: A

I enjoyed this book so much. I loved, loved, loved the '80's references and it brought me back to middle school in an instant! The writers have done an amazing job of showing how far we stray from the simpleness of those days as we reach our 30's and have real jobs and families; then expertly showcasing the mirror image of our lives today and how they maybe aren't so different from the cliques, hangouts, and crushes of our teenage days. One of my top 10 favorite books--I read it in an afternoon.

I read a review in a magazine for this book and it looked promising. However, once I started reading the book, I found that I couldn't care less about the characters. More detail was given about 80's fashion and music (and random at that.. they didn't give thought to the years they were supposed to be in) than to the character description. What did Katie look like? Who knows? I couldn't force myself to finish it, even though I was 3/4 finished. I just didn't care how it turned out.
I am an avid reader, and had high hopes for this one. The story's plot is thin, badly written and just a waste of time. Very disapointing.

Well... I'm not exactly sure what to say about this one. I liked the way that the book was laid out -- the chapters jumping to a different period in the past, and then back to the present setting, back and forth. The authors are pretty good at writing novels that don't involve a lot of thinking, that are east to get through, compelling, make you want to keep going & find out what happens next. Basically, it's entertaining enough, but it's nothing special.

Unfortunately, I had a really hard time relating to the main character, Kate. I'm younger (24) than she is (30), but I've been able to relate to older protagonists going through that 'what the hell do I do with my life' phase before. Kate struck me as whiny and, to be honest, completely obsessed with her first love, a young man who wound up betraying her, her best friend and his bandmates by stealing the bandmates' music and claiming it as his own... and by writing about their relationship, so when he took off, it haunted her from the radio. Okay, sure, that's gotta be tough, but something like ten years had passed between the break-up and when the novel was set. You'd THINK that Kate would have gotten over it by NOW, especially since Jake is shallow and manipulative, and a liar. He's completely unappealing, unless all you want out of him is a one-night stand. He's the sort of man who will suck you in with charm and sweet words he doesn't mean, and then leave in the morning, or a week later. Unreliable. A teenager might fall for it. And yet grown-up Kate is still stuck on him. I'm not big on revenge, and maybe that's because I've never been through it myself, but I found it hard to relate and understand why she would even bother with this loser.

My favorite parts involved the minor characters - particularly her best friend, Laura (I wonder why - that's my name too, haha), her husband Sam, Kate's parents. Their stories were more interesting than Kate's, who despite having a good life, a job she enjoys, etc etc, is stuck in a rut over a boy.

The end was probably the best part, but I won't spoil it for other readers. Didn't really redeem the rest of the book, because I'd lost any sympathy I had for Kate by that point

Like all the others have written - the back and forth with past (80s) and present (2005) from chapter to chapter is definitely not a huge success. Too often, you have to read many chapters ahead to understand comments/incidents from previous chapters. It becomes a page turner because you want to understand more and more, however, you will be dissapointed and feel no real pay off by the rushed ending.

The story had so much promise. Like other posters I kept waiting for all the buildup to result in some fabulous ending but there was just this mad downhill rush of stuff at the end that was completely disjointed from the rest of the story and simply didn't ring true. As another person wrote, there was a complete lack of information regarding the characters and the whole thing was extremely superficial. Thank goodness I got this as a gift and didn't have to pay for it.