Customer Reviews

Heart on My Sleeve

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To: everyone@teenreads.com
From: Carlie Webber
Subj: great new book from Ellen Wittlinger

Hi all,

I just finished HEART ON MY SLEEVE and wanted to tell you about it. It centers on a girl named Chloe who meets this guy, Julian, at a college visit weekend in Connecticut. Chloe lives in Massachusetts and Julian lives in Florida, but that doesn't stop them from forming a close friendship over email. Chloe thinks she's falling in love, and Julian even sends her a dozen roses --- which wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't arrived as Chloe and her boyfriend Eli were having their pictures taken for their senior prom!

So everything in Chloe's life gets kind of crazy after that, between breaking up with Eli and fighting with her best friend, and heading off to summer arts camp. Chloe shares all of her problems with her older sister, the outrageous Genevieve. But Veev has a few problems she needs to share with Chloe as well.

Julian's life isn't exactly perfect, either. His mom and wanderlusting sister fight all the time, and now his sister is getting married to someone he doesn't even know. He's growing apart from his best friend and is tired of everyone telling him that he should date Nina, who has had a crush on him since forever.

This book is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, dealing honestly with the trials of the transition from high school to college and changes in families. Anyone who has had a relationship or family dilemma will identify with Ellen Wittlinger's personable characters and their difficulties. Not all love is perfect, and Chloe and her friends find that sometimes the best thing to do is to just let go.

ttyl,

CKW

--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber

I thought "Heart On My Sleeve" was a very good book. I chose it primarily because of the e-mail format writing style that so far only a few authors have explored.

This is a coming of age story that gives you the transition of a teenage girl towards the end of her senior year in high school on to her first months of college towards the end of the book. The storyline is very relatable for those of us who have had their heart broken, those of us who've fallen in love with someone for who we think they are, and it's also a story of thinking you know everything about your family and not really knowing as much as you thought.

I think this book is worth the money because it's a good, fast read that has a surprising ending you may not expect.

I read this almost two years ago, so if I can't remember some peoples' names or I ger a few details wrong, don't be too harsh.
This book was mostly substandard in the world of young adult literature-- containing the typical stories of teenagers in 'love' with no real twists save for their seemingly odd tastes in music, which felt not like a heartfelt new touch to the genre but rather like a gimmick. But what truly dismayed me about this book was the fact that the author seemed to say that NO relationships ever worked. The main character Chloe's relationship with her first boyfriend didn't work, her relationship with Julian didn't work, and the 'third guy' seemed to be a cliche of misunderstandings commonly found in this sort of literature. I could understand why she wouldn't want to be with any of these three guys or would at least be confused about things, but what about her sister's relationship? Couldn't the author at least have presented the audience with SOME hope in the fact that some relationships do work, especially considering that her sister and her sister's girlfriend were old enough to make something like a life partnership believable? At the end of the book, none of the main characters are in happy, definite relationships, which seems pessimistic and unnecessary.

This book had good potential but kept letting me down! It tried to be edgy with the music you've never heard of and the lesbian sister and it just came accross as trying too hard. The heroine is a bit drippy and doesn't know her own mind. She seems a lot younger than 18 and since I can't respect her, it's really hard to like the book. Get it from the library ... I doubt this will be read more than once.

i loved this book. it really captured my feelings heading off to college. it has the usual girl problems but it also delved into things like lesbianism, abortion ect. this book let me know that i am not alone in feeling scared. anyone going off to college should take a look.

"Heart On My Sleeve" is about a girl named Cloe and a guy named Julian. They get to know each other a little bit when they go to a college orientation. They keep in touch though e-mails, letters, postcards, and IMs. As the story progresses, they meet again and they are so shocked to find out who one another actually are.... Will Julian and Chloe still end up going to the same college together as planned?