Love & Lies: Marisol's Story (Hardcover)

by Ellen Wittlinger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up—Marisol Guzman, 18, puts off enrolling at Stamford for a year so she can write a novel. She gets a job at a local coffee shop and signs up for a writing course through the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Olivia, the instructor, is strikingly beautiful, a number of years older, and appears to have the knowledge and skills to teach the class. Looks can be deceiving, however, and Marisol learns this truth the hard way when she becomes involved in her first real sexual relationship. Her former buddy, Gio, whose romantic feelings for Marisol were thwarted because she is a lesbian, coincidentally registers for the same class and their friendship is restored. Marisol's friend and apartment mate, Birdie; his new love, Damon; and Gio realize early on that Olivia is pushy, inconsiderate, and manipulative, but Marisol doesn't listen. Wittlinger's companion to Hard Love (S & S, 1999) effectively continues the story from Marisol's point of view. Characters are well drawn and believable, and the interpersonal relationships realistic. Along with her friends, readers can see early on that Marisol's relationship with "the teacher" is courting disaster. Witnessing Olivia's jealousy and mistreatment and wishing Marisol would finally open her eyes creates effective page-turning tension. Although everything falls apart and it is too late to fix things, there is a note of hope at the end that cries out for yet another installment of this compelling story.—Diane P. Tuccillo, Fort Collins Regional Library District, CO
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In this companion title, which comes nine years after Printz Honor Book Hard Love (1999), Marisol takes center stage after playing a critical and exceptionally drawn supporting character in Gio’s story. Beginning a handful of months after Hard Love ends, the story opens with Marisol’s decision to defer entry to Stanford for a year to focus on her writing and, hopefully, to find love. She rents an apartment, takes a waitressing job, and enrolls in a novel-writing class. At work, she meets Lee, a lesbian teen estranged from her midwestern family. In her writing class, she meets beautiful teacher Olivia Frost, and she also reconnects with Gio. As she navigates a new friendship, a powerful teacher-student romance, and a damaged relationship with Gio, Marisol takes a number of wrong turns and has to live with the consequences. The plot, which stretches plausibility, may not compare favorably with Hard Love’s sophisticated crafting, but this solid entry into the small but growing canon of GLBTQ fiction for teens will engage readers. Grades 10-12. --Holly Koelling

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416916237
• ISBN-13: 978-1416916239
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #369,739 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book- Straight Forward and Fun to Read !, August 6, 2008

By	Jo Ana Starr "Mind-Body-Spirit" (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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I liked this book and I was surprised to find that other reviewers thought it was so-so. It was often funny and I liked the story line, the author's use of language and her character development.

The story begins with Marisol's decision to delay going to Stanford for a year so that she could focus on writing a novel and falling in love. She's sharing an apartment in Boston with her best friend Birdie and to make ends meet, she takes a job as a waitress in a historic Cambridge student hangout, and she also enrolls in a novel-writing class.

At work, she meets Lee, a shy lesbian teen, newly arrived in Boston, where she fled after admitting to her parents that she was a lesbian. When she and Marisol met, Lee was feeling somewhat stranded in Boston but at least away from the disapproval of her midwestern family.

In her writing class, Marisol meets a beautiful teacher and she also reconnects with her estranged friend, Gio. She stumbles a bunch trying to foster the romance between herself and the teacher, and to manage a damaged relationship with her friend Gio. As Marisol maneuvers through this story, she seems very self-assured and confident on the outside, but like most of us, she's soft in the middle, and for that reason, she has to struggle as she juggles all the responsibilities, interactions and the priorities that she has on her plate.

What I really liked about this book is there was no hand-wringing or emotional excesses. The author tells it like it is. It was an upbeat, entertaining book to read. I agree with one reviewer, that it is light reading, but sometimes that's exactly what you feel like. The optimism and confidence of youth colors this book and makes it a pleasure to read. Another thing I liked is that the author didn't write up to her audience or down to her audience. As an adult, I found it really enjoyable and I bet that teens will,too !

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to Mend a Broken Heart and Who's Zooming Who?, August 16, 2008

By	Erika Borsos "pepper flower" (Gulf Coast of FL, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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This is a "coming of age" story with a contemporary love theme filled with a few twists. It is about Marisol Guzman, an eighteen year old who has two life goals: the first to write her first novel and the second to fall in love. Next year, she plans to attend Stanford University, the main reason ishe wants to live on the West coast is because she has lived her whole life in Massachusetts and wants to experience something new and different. Marisol is exerting her independence by living in an apartment with a male friend but it is not what you may be thinking. She and Birdie, her room mate, have been friends for a long time but it is not about romance at all. It is about discovering life on their own terms. The author provides humorous conversations throughout the novel and also great insights into human behavior. She explores several themes: falling in love with the wrong people, deceiving someone you profess to love to prevent emotional pain and reconciling friendships and love after bonds of truth have been broken.

Marisol meets a nice but somewhat sad looking high school senior girl named Lee at the coffee shop where she works. She likes her and they become good friends. Marisol learns Lee came from Indiana to live with her sister, not long after announcing to her parents she was a lesbian. Significantly, Marisol had within the past two years informed her parents she was gay. Her mother, a social worker and counselor had embraced the idea. Her father had also adjusted to the facts of life but less enthusiastically. Marisol had signed up for an eight week adult education class "Writing Your First Novel" and was surprised to find Gio (given name John) was also taking the class. Their friendship is somewhat tense because he had fallen hard for Marisol and recently expressed his love to her, only to discover the true reasons why she did not respond to him as expected. Surprisingly, he also signed up for the adult writing class taught by a graduate of Columbia University who had three published novels under his belt. Unfortunately, there was a change of instructors and Olivia Frost, a stunning dark-haired beauty with long legs and piercing eyes was teaching the class instead. Her credentials were impeccable, she was a recent Harvard graduate and nearly finished writing her first novel. Olivia WOWed the class with her intelligence and knowledge. Marisol and Olivia became friends and later eventually more ... Marisol was fulfilling one of her life goals but she discovered gradually that Olivia was not what she seemed. Through some interesting twists in the plot, the author gradually revealed deceptions and lies which each character used to get what she wanted from the other. Marisol learned sometimes true love is right under your nose but you have to recognize the clues ... This is a very interesting book which will appeal to a select audience who is open to different expressions of love. I was unaware of the contemporary theme but enjoyed the book because the author is an excellent writer. Erika Borsos (pepper flower)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Bit as Good as HARD LOVE, August 14, 2008

By	Katie Osborne (Portland, Oregon and the sunny Caribbean) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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I can't believe it's been seven years since I'd read Hard Love, a young adult novel that really bowled me over. I liked how it explored the relationship between John "Gio" Galardi and Marisol Guzman, he's straight and in love with her, she's not and therefore only loves him back as a best friend. The book was told from John's point of view and very well done.

This book takes up only a few month after Hard Love ended and is told from Marisol's point of view. Marisol has decided to take a year off before going to Stanford. She has a job at a diner in Cambridge and decides to take a "How to Write Your First Novel" adult education class. And to her surprise Gio is in the class as well, but that's what really floors Marisol, what really gets her, gets her straight to the heart, is the teacher, Olivia Frost, who she falls in love with.

To complicate matters a young lesbian named Lee falls in love with Marisol, but Marisol can't get Olivia out of her mind and heart. She's confused, Marisol is and she helps work her way through it through the characters in her novel, which makes for fun reading as it parallels the real story.

We all know from the news that teachers aren't supposed to have sex with students, even lesbian sex and even if the student is over eighteen, it should be a no no, that alone made me not like Olivia, but there are other reasons to be sure, but I loved this story, loved the characters, loved how tastefully it was done. It's hard to believe a book like this could be written for young adults, but then that's what I thought way back when Hard Love came out. When I was a girl, this story would shocked, I mean shocked people. Times have changed and in this regard for the better.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne