Love, Meg [Paperback]

C. Leigh Purtill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2008

Fans of Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen will fall in love with this gorgeously written story of one girl’s search for her family and herself.

Sixteen-year-old Meg Shanley has to start life over again in Los Angeles because her thirtyyear- old sister Lucie can’t get it together. Lucie is always chasing a new man, quitting her job, and packing up their lives. Meg wishes she didn’t have to count on Lucie, but she’s the only family Meg has ever known.

Then a man arrives on their doorstep and reveals a shocking truth: Back in New York Meg has an uncle, a grandmother, and a father who might not even know she exists. Meg sees an opportunity to have the family she’s always dreamed about. She summons all her will, defies Lucie, and travels to New York.

But happiness, she discovers, doesn’t lie in a new family. Instead it rests in the true source of her inner strength; in a secret that has been buried deep inside her heart.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Razorbill (April 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595141472
• ISBN-13: 978-1595141477
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,360,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

C. Leigh Purtill is the author of two novels, "Love, Meg" and "All About Vee"

Purtill graduated from Mount Holyoke College with degrees in anthropology and dance. She later received her Masters of Science in Film at Boston University. In New York City she became a script supervisor on films, videos and commercials.

In Los Angeles she worked as a broadcast standards editor (network censor) for The WB Television Network, later renamed The CW Television Network on such shows as The Gilmore Girls and 7th Heaven.

Purtill currently resides in West Hollywood with her husband.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, July 7, 2007

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love, Meg (Hardcover)

Teenager Meg Shanley and her thrity-year-old sister, Lucie, are moving from town to town, looking for a better life. Their parents are gone and Lucie has taken over the role as mother to Meg, although she has not done a very good job of it. Lucie tends to think more along the lines of what's best for herself instead of what's best for Meg. Meg must travel with Lucie because she has no other family to go to.

When Lucie abandons her motherly role, Meg finds a new "mother," Jennifer Aniston. Meg writes all of her worries and woes in a letter - and Jennifer Aniston actually replies! The replies are motherly, filled with caring and solutions to her problems. Jen is more of a mother to Meg than Lucie is of a sister.

One day, a strange man arrives at Meg and Lucie's Los Angeles house bringing a horrifying truth: Lucie is not exactly who she has been pretending to be. The man, Lonnie, explains that Meg has a grandmother and even a father back in New York. No one knows anything about Meg's father, though, except that he doesn't even know that Meg exists.

With Lucie's words of "If you go, don't come back" imprinted on her mind, Meg hops on a plane to New York to find a family she never knew existed - and what she finds is much more than she expected...

If I could give LOVE, MEG a higher rating I would! This book totally captivated me and made me look forward to continuing my reading. LOVE, MEG is a book I will lend and recommend to other readers proudly. I cannot explain how amazing I thought this book was.

Reviewed by: Jeremey

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, October 22, 2007

By 

Gen Max (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love, Meg (Hardcover)

A wonderful heartfelt story. I'm 40 years old and yet I was pulled right in to this world through the straighforward yet poetic text. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward Leigh Purtill's next work which I hope is published soon.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very real characters with great emotion, July 17, 2007

By 

Y. Pak "Kiddult extraordinaire" (OC, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love, Meg (Hardcover)

This book was totally heartfelt with wonderful storytelling that it was hard to break away. The characters were so great and had real depth to all of them even the most seemingly minor little characters. There were some moments when you want to just yell at some characters and other moments when you wish you could just give Meg a big hug and comfort her. She is truly a very real teenager filled with the typical social anxieties that teens go through but always optimistic that everything will turn out with the way they should. In the end, it wasn't about everything having a happy ending with this book, it's all about going through Meg's journey through some of the hardest secrets and truths and experiences that any person, teen or adult could ever go through... with a little help from Jen! Wonderful wonderful!!