Flat-Out Love [Paperback]

Jessica Park (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2012

Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance. 

It's not what you know--or when you see--that matters. It's about a journey. 

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it. When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side ... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes. 

 And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul. 

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well ... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer. 

Flat-Out Love comes complete with emails, Facebook status updates, and instant messages.

This is a true all-ages novel--very suitable for older teens, but equally engaging for adults.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Flat-Out Love is the first book in a long, long time that has touched me this deeply."
---Book & A Latte

"It made me feel emotions I thought my black heart wouldn't allow."---See K Read

"This book was so outrageously good. It has surpassed--dare I say it?--my deeply beloved Nicholas Sparks."
---Just Another Book Addict

"...This is The Best Book I Have Ever Read...I have read a lot of books but none like this one. It made me laugh until I nearly cried. It's funny, sad, romantic and just simply fantastic..."
ComaCalm's Corner

"Within the first chapter, I laughed out loud no less than four times. The characters were well-rounded, and strong while still vulnerable...Flat Out Love is a shining example of romance in the internet age..."--Random Musings

"I loved it so much that I'm already considering how long to wait before re-reading it. The romance in this one is amazing because it's a slow building, feel-it-in-your-stomach kind of love."
---Book Labyrinth

About the Author

Jessica Park is the author of the young adult novel RELATIVELY FAMOUS, five Gourmet Girl mysteries (written as Jessica Conant-Park) and the e-shorts FACEBOOKING RICK SPRINGFIELD and WHAT THE KID SAYS (Parts 1 & 2). She grew up in the Boston area and then went to Macalester College in frigid St. Paul, Minnesota. During her freshman year, there was a blizzard on Halloween, and she decided that she was not cut out for such torture. So she moved back to the east coast where, she'd forgotten, it still snows. Oops. She now lives in New Hampshire with her husband, son, bananas dog named Fritzy, and two selfish cats. When not writing, she is probably on Facebook , pining over 80s rock stars, or engaging in "Glee" activities. Or some combination of the three. Probably with a coffee in hand.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (April 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1461085977
• ISBN-13: 978-1461085973
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,325 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jessica is the author of New York Times bestselling FLAT-OUT LOVE, RELATIVELY FAMOUS, and the upcoming NA novel, LEFT DROWNING (July 2013). She lives in New Hampshire where she spends an obscene amount time thinking about rocker boys and their guitars, complex caffeinated beverages, and tropical vacations. On the rare occasions that she is able to focus on other things, she writes.

Please visit her at jessicapark.me and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authorjessicapark and Twitter @JessicaPark24

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

204 of 241 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Flat-Out Awesome July 20, 2011

By J. Meegan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Frankly, I am SHOCKED this author has not been snatched up by a major publishing house. I am even more shocked the reviews for this book are so few (but not at all surprised that almost every review was five star).

This ebook was fantastic with virtually zero flaws (even down to the grammar, spelling, punctuation). I loved the story and the characters and the author's creative use of technology as a way to further enhance the plot. It's been a loooooong time since I've read a YA book where I was as emotionally invested in the characters and the outcome as I was intellectually. The characters are incredibly three-dimensional and I was rooting for them from the get-go (especially Celeste and Matt). And how refreshing to find an author who presumes the intelligence of her readers and isn't afraid to challenge them with some truly excellent word play and smart humor.

Julie, the heroine, is wonderful and incredibly sympathetic....and, I felt, an awesome role model for young women readers. She's not perfect but she isn't afraid to take risks and admit her flaws. She grows tremendously during the story and it's a pleasure to see how much she matures from start to finish.

Like other reviewers, I am afraid to go into a lot of detail about the plot because I don't want to reveal too much. Suffice it to say it's very cleverly done and written in such a way that even if you begin to think you know what's going on, you still aren't 100% certain until a good chunk of the way in. And by that point, you are fully invested in all the characters and eager to see how things fall into place. I thought it was wonderful the way the author puts the reader in Julie's shoes so completely that when we get to the big reveal, our emotions are as complex and complicated as hers.... BTW, this isn't just a tale of romance (but there's plenty of that), it's also a realistic portrait of a fractured family who are slowly, slowly emerging from a dark time and reconnecting with one another and themselves.

All I can say is even if this book doesn't sound like your cup of tea, give it a try. I suspect you will be more than pleasantly surprised. Read more ›

55 of 73 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars ***MAJOR SPOILER! Don't read if you don't want to know the big revelation! November 13, 2011

By Confused at Work

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

You are warned, there are major spoilers here, so don't read if you like your suspense.

I haven't read every review before purchasing this book. I typically like knowing what happens in a story before buying it but did not do so with this book. I bought it because of the quirky dialogue in the sample and because I like love triangle plots. After reading the book, I'm going back to finding out spoilers before buying anything again. Like the reviewer who rated this book 1 star, I am also creeped out by the story. I've been debating whether to include a spoiler, but decided to do it in case there are some folks out there like me who prefer to know everything before buying the book.

***********WARNING! MAJOR SPOILER! DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!**********
Heroine starting college in a new city, found out she was swindled by a craigslist posting and has nowhere to live. Mom contacts an old college friend who sends her college son to pick her up. Heroine meets younger sister who has a cut-out full sized photo of their older brother who's abroad. Younger sis takes big bro's cut-out with her everywhere & talks to it like he's a real person - h finds this very disturbing. In fact, she finds the entire family a little bit strange. College son takes her apt-hunting but no luck. Mom's friend offers older brother's room to h in exchange for babysitting younger sister after school so college son can work as teacher's asst (or something like that). h friends elder brother on Facebook and they exchange lots of funny emails. h finds she is falling for big brother and he emails that he feels the same. College son is like a brother to h and she has lots of fun dialogue with him. Big bro sends a package to everyone and there's a necklace for h.... Fast forward a couple of months later, h goes to a local artist store and finds a hair clip that big bro allegedly sent from abroad to little sis. This makes h suspicious. She goes home, finds old photo albums and notices that the photos older bro sent to her where digitally copied. College son comes home, h confronts him and she finds out older bro has been dead for several yrs, everyone pretends he's alive somewhere, college son admits he is actually Facebook older bro sending her emails and that everything he told her was true, that he was in love with h. She is obviously angry why she wasn't told this and later moves out after having talk with family mom who explains what happened. Fast forward 3 months later, family dad sees her during one of little sis' visits and notices h is wearing a gemstone pendant (something necklace), explains that it was college bro's prized possession & that h must mean so much to college bro for him to give it to her. She realizes she does love college son, tells him when she sees him that she felt it was him all along, which I personally didn't feel while reading the story.

The dialogue was very smart and funny, hence the 2 stars. Up until the reveal, I was enjoying the story, anticipating what would happen when big bro came home. I read somewhere that this was a love triangle so I couldn't wait to get to the part where college son reveals his feelings & would he fight big bro for her? But I was floored at the revelation...and seriously creeped out! My mind went back through everything happening in the story and can't help cringe & think that this family was seriously dysfunctional and morbid. I never felt that there was any attraction at all between college son & the heroine, I only felt it during the email exchanges between h & big bro. If it weren't for the witty dialogue, I'd have given this story 1 star for effort. Read more ›

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Figured out the main twist before even starting the book - but still REALLY enjoyed this! June 21, 2012

By PaleLemonade

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed reading this book, and it was well worth the $3.99 price (you never know with these self published kindle books...). I only found one or two punctuation/grammar issues, and nothing distracting. This was a well told story and I really cared about the characters, although I will say the main twist was very obvious. I figured it out just from reading the book description before I even opened up to page one. Despite knowing the twist though, I found it to be a very moving and interesting story. I really think that a good young adult novel will suck in even adult readers, and this book did that for me.

Let me start by saying that I spent my last few years of college living in the exact area of Cambridge/Somerville that is described here. Once I realized the familiar setting of the book I was on high alert for any mess-ups! I wasn't disappointed! While I am unaware of a Jamaica Plain burrito joint (could exist, I don't know), I was quite familiar with the Davis Square T stop escalators, the Harvard square walk from the T, the plethora of Dunkin Donuts, the Harvard Square ABP and chess players, the COOP....I can even picture the Starbucks where she met Seth which is RIGHT next to my friend's mother's hair salon and down the street from where one of my best friends lived in college. I can picture the Watkins house, on those beautiful tree lined Cambridge streets *sniffs nostalgically* Anyway, she did a good job, though I would have loved to see some unique local eateries mentioned.

I liked the Facebook updates and back and forth emails. It rang pretty true, though they were much wittier updates that I usually see posted on Facebook....

I really loved and cared about the character of Celeste, and to be honest, most of the time little-sibling characters really annoy me in books. The emotionally dysfunctional Watkins family was quite interesting to read about, and, of course, I am always looking to discover the next great literary epic-romance. :) I liked the love story presented here, it felt very genuine. My one complaint would be that we barely got to see the main characters kissing...once or twice. I would have liked to see a *little* more action...I know it's a young adult novel...but hmph...surely another "clean" love scene could have been written in?

Overall, I really liked it and would definitely recommend! Read more ›