Customer Reviews

Like This and Like That (Boy Shopping Novels)

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

 

 

Tall and beautiful, Gemma Williams possesses mad skills on the basketball court but she is unlucky in love off the court. All the guys she agrees to date turn out to be losers. She enlists the help of her best friend, Maria who encourages her to join a hot new dating site for teens called Boy Shopping. After signing up and finding four matches, Gemma's hilarious adventures in dating begins.

The concept of LIKE THIS AND LIKE THAT is cute because the book is interactive and the reader controls the outcome of the story. With this being the second installment of the Boy Shopping series, the story does well as a standalone. The characters are your typical teenagers who deal with premarital sex, underage drinking and interracial dating. Stephen's writing style is very simplistic which will keep the attention of young readers. Adults as well as teens can easily enjoy this one.

Reviewed by Paula Henderson
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

"Like This and Like That" came to be an amazing book, because the reader gets to control the outcome of the story. The characters are your typical teenagers who deal with premarital sex, underage drinking and interracial dating.

In this book you will read about the difficulties of dating or trying to find a guy who will be compatible with you. In every new chapter it talks about four different type of guys Gemma ( the main character in the book) is going out with, and figuring out if it's going to work out for her. The book starts out when Gemma was at a house party with a basketball player that she thought she knew, and experience what a jerk he came out to be , to turning to online dating and finding four different guys that maybe a match for her. I chose this book because I love how the book goes through every date she went through, and how it didn't work out.

I know the facts in the book were accurate because one of the facts it used was " Gemma will never be stuck on the dating bench again." This is true because, since she started to do online dating she came across four guys;: Drew, Dan, Ethan, and Christopher. Since she found different, new guys to date, she won't have to worry about not getting a date.

The author used many different methods of influencing audiences in the book, such as bias in the passage, "If looks is the only thing that matters to guys, maybe looks should be the only thing that matters to me. It would make everything a lot simpler." In this quote, the author is saying that guys just like girls for their looks, but to be honest most guys don't, because guys feel they're not all that good looking too or they just don't care. Next, the author uses stereotyping:" No way was her first time going to be at a party with a toasted jock who didn't seem to notice she had checked out ten minutes ago. `What's wrong with you?' Nick growled. `You're kidding, right? `Gemma gasped. `You females are crazy, you're such a tease." Basically from this quote, guys think girls are teases when they seem to be going along with it for a minute, but realize that they're not ready, so guys think that girls are teases. Another method is, over-generalization: "'Quit drooling,' Gemma said, laughing. `I'm not denying his utter, complete hotness. But you know how I feel about basketball players- they're all high on themselves.'" From this quote, all basketball players aren't about themselves but they do have that high confidence when they play a game. Lastly is association: "How about Xavier Banks? Remember him? His breath rank I felt sorry for his toothbrush." This method is going back to a past time when Gemma dated a guy who had horrible breath and it couldn't work.

This book, "Like This and Like That," isn't "cute," it is a very interesting book. The book is interactive and the readers have a chance to control the outcome of this story. Some suggestions: if you're having problems in relationships or you just don't have luck with meeting the right person, then look up Nia Stephen's books and she will surely give you that guidance in what you want to do in your relationships.

Senior English Student 2010

I really enjoyed this book. I liked it a little more than the first one and it was a great read. A lot of teenage girls could probabbly relate to this. Nia Stephens really knows what she's doing and she's doing it VERY well, I might add!!