Customer Reviews

Stormin' Mormon

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

 

 

I am glad a friend passed this on to me to read. I would have hated to have to buy it. It is a story not unlike many other stories. Drags on at times to the point that I finally closed the book and threw it into the discount book pile at my local bookstore.

I actually read this book. I might be the only reviewer (save the author) to do so.

My take: Saul is a shock jock with a tough on-air persona. Jerusha, a femme fatale who charms her way into anything she wants (save the music industry), selects Saul as interviewee for a school project after hearing him spout some sports douchebaggery on the radio. The two meet and instantly connect. Jerusha refuses to break up with her nice boyfriend, Jared (a nod to the Mormon husband-wife team behind Napoleon Dynamite?), even though she doesn't seem to like him. Saul is too much of a wimp to dump his hot girlfriend. They make a pact to pretend to be Mormons so their insignificant others will end their relationships, and they can be happy together. (*Spoilers ahead) Their weird plan (immediately) succeeds and Saul and Jerusha begin spending copious amounts of time together. Then Jerusha cheats on a test and gets kicked out of school, Saul gets her a job at his radio station, Saul goes nuts on air and is put on suspension, and... Jerusha takes over his radio show! OMG! Ultimately, the two realize that witty banter is all they really share, so they become co-hosts on Saul's show and set about winning back their old lovers. Saul's lady has, sadly, moved on. Jerusha, after rediscovering her own faith, finds out Jared has been secretly becoming a Mormon for her.

The premise appealed to me, but a fatal flaw in the plot that prevented me from enjoying this book. Saul is a wuss. He's not in love with his girlfriend, but he refuses to break up with her because she'll cry. WTF. Like a badass, he tries to return some stolen CDs to Best Buy and, when he thinks the manager's caught him, nearly wets himself at the sight of a security guard. Jerusha, on the other hand, is hot stuff, and she knows it. I can imagine a girl like her staying with a boyfriend she's not that into because he's so nice to her. I don't believe for a minute, though, that she would leave one passive boyfriend for another passive boyfriend, especially one that had a really hard time breaking up with his girlfriend for her. If Saul grew a pair and broke up with Shannon, and then told Jerusha he'd done it so he could be with her, we wouldn't have had to go through this whole ridiculousness of pretending to be religious.

I was annoyed with the numerous grammar/typing errors. I'm not sure if these are exclusive to the Kindle edition or if the print version is the same. Author Phil uses some archaic word choices where colloquial ones would have sufficed. I like learning new words, but this came off as overuse of a thesaurus. Phil also uses weird passive voice sometimes, saying things like "So happy was Saul" instead of "Saul was so happy."

Arguably, this book really isn't about hilarity ensuing when two people pretend to be Mormon. That part of the story is relatively short, though I wish it had been fleshed out more. At its core, this is one of those predictable, happily ending romantic comedies that would star Katherine Heigl and Dane Cook. I hate those movies, so maybe I'm not the target audience for this particular novel.

Using Mormonism as a way to irritate ones partner away might sound funny in idea, but as executed in this novel it is amazingly derivative. If the author was looking to shock for comedy, than why not have his characters suddenly become Muslim and try to run their partners off by making vague threats about the government.... ah, thats because Mormons are an easy target but Muslim comedy starts riots.

Easily the best book I have read in a long time. Well written and a great story. 5 stars all the way.

I did not enjoy this book because I do not understand much about Mormons. I knew this before coming in to the book so this is a bit biased, I do enjoy animated books though and I felt it should have had more of that. It drags on a bit at times even though it is short.

Wow! What a great book! It was recomended by the Frank show, as usually, they were right on! This book was infact the total opposite of the movie wally-since it was great, wonderfull and all that!

This book is perfect, hilarious and possibly the greatest work of literature ever created. I wouldn't change a word.

phil villarreal really hit a triple with his debut novel, "stormin mormon". in which, a radio dj, saul cruz, falls for a girl who may be the woman of his dreams, jerusha goodman. jerusha is a student at the university of arizona and feels reciprocal attraction for saul. The only problem is they are both in monotonous, boring relationships with people who love them and neither want to cheat. Saul devises a plan where he and jerusha will feign their devoutness to the church of mormon, thus allowing their current significant others to become frustrated and ultimately break off the relationships. This in turn will permit saul and jerusha to date one another free of guilt.

this, the first of hopefully many novels from phil villareal, is an absolute addiction. the hilariously realistic dialogue, feels like it was pulled out of the my very own head. i highly recommend, this very relatable book to everyone who is literate; and am anxiously awaiting phil's follow up.