Lipstick Apology Paperback – August 6, 2009

Lipstick Apology was an enjoyable read, it was serious at times but well balanced with humor. Emily's world is turned upside down when her parents die in a tragic plane crash. She leaves her life behind in Pennsylvania and moves in with her aunt in New York City. Emily struggles with grieving in an unknown environment but also tries to figure out what her mother's apology was about. As if that wasn't enough she has the hottest guy in school that's interested in her and a lab partner whose not popular but understands her. Hm, so what's a girl to do? You're going to have to read it to find out :)~ I really liked going through the journey with Emily, in the end she learns the meaning of forgiveness, no matter how much the truth hurt her. I loved the character development and I grew to admire Emily as a person. Jennifer had a great debut and I look forward to her other projects in the future.

I met this author when I was in high school, I've always wanted to read this book, but someone stole it out of our school library! Luckily I found it on here, and I must say it is a page turner. A really good book

Loved this book. Was well written, held your interest and was very easy reading. The setting takes place near where I use to live so I could relate to places that are mentioned.(NJ and NYC area) Nothing profound in it but it is a great entertaining "beach" book.

I bought this book for my 14 year old for a summer reading book for school.
She absolutely loved it!! She let a couple of her friends borrow it. I plan to read it when her friends return it.

I love this book! A great book for teens out there! Wonderful love, and comedy book. And great life lessons too! BUY!!

I loved this book. It's intense, poignant, bittersweet, wise and funny. It's also beautifully and subtly crafted, with all the elements - story, characters, style - combining to create a richly rewarding reading and emotional experience.

MC Emily's life is catastrophically and irreparably torn apart when her vacationing parents' flight goes down with no survivors. The discovery in the crash debris of a mysterious message from her mother - "Emily, please forgive me," insures that she will suffer the intrusive attention of the tabloids, as well as her more private feelings of loss, pain, grief and bewilderment over the meaning of that haunting lipstick apology. And as if that weren't enough to be getting on with, she is wrenched from her leafy suburban home, school and friends to live with her mother's younger sister Jolie, a Manhattan-based upscale makeup maven who, despite her veneer of sophistication and style, can hardly cope herself with her sister's death, let alone live up to being the adult in Emily's life. Emily is torn between her desire to be the new, made-over, over it and moving on girl, fitting into her sophisticated new prep school, and the haunting reality of her overwhelming feelings of abandonment, guilt and loss. And above all, she continues to be tormented by the need to understand why her seemingly perfect mother would beg her for forgiveness with her very last words.

I loved the way Emily's struggles are echoed in so many elements of the story. The contrast between the placid, pastoral river that flowed past her childhood home and the turbulent urban Hudson overlooked by Jolie's sleek but somewhat sterile apartment. The whole makeup/makeover motif, starting with the apology itself being written in lipstick, then showing up again with Jolie's business and the multiple makeovers Jolie gives Emily and her new friends - echoes Emily's attempts to cover, conceal and carry on behind a facade of normalcy. Then there's the theme of homemade food and baked goods (Jolie's kitchen is just a "closet for take-out menu's," with only Emily's mom's old apron gracing it with any warmth) as being a way of expressing feelings and representing home, family and authenticity. Even the two boys in the story seem to represent these poles of Emily's conflicting desires to confront or conceal, to paper over or to archeologize her grief.

Before it's all over secrets and lies will show their awesome and awful power. Emily will be tested, cruelly, and for me at least, almost beyond endurance. Things will never, ever be the same. But as Emily comes to acknowledge, life "is about crawling out from under the wreckage and rebuilding after disaster - making new memories and new families with people who fill our voids and make us laugh." Interestingly ,the word "wreckage" appears in the book only twice - once when the message is found, and once here when Emily begins, not necessarily to heal, but to perceive that healing might someday be possible (gotta love that search feature on the Nook!).

Emily ... my heart went out to her so much. She is not a perfect, wise beyond her years paragon - she's a real girl, sometimes superficial, sometimes hurtful and selfish, but so, so vulnerable, fragile but possessed of an inner strength that makes her struggles all the more affecting. Jolie is an awesomely realized character too, and it's impossible not to empathize and agonize with her in the weird and unexpected role and dilemmas she finds herself thrust into. The boys didn't do that much for me, but maybe that's a guy thing. And of course, the powerful presence of Jill, Emily's mom, looms large over the story. Even though she's absent you get a feel for her hurt, her humanity and her deep love for her daughter and husband. The city of New York is a character here, too, and despite my general lack of love for it, I acknowledge that here it adds to Emily's journey and growth. The recurring motif of When Harry Met Sally is fun, and provides a counterpoint commentary to Emily's boy-related feelings.

This is such a richly humane story of flaws, forgiveness and finding a way forward - really, I'm still kind of torn up. It's pretty rare for me to stay up late reading, unable to stop, anymore. This is that kind of book, and it kept me up way, way past any semblance of a sensible bed time (on a work night, yet!). It might keep me up again tonight, just thinking about it. This has been kind of a long review, but trust me, there's still much more to experience and enjoy here. Don't miss it.

"Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind"
Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality

I was super-excited to read this one. I love the title Lipstick Apology, and I thought it would be a mixture of grief and romance, which is perfect fot me. Obviously, I was pretty disappointed.

The plot is good. I still like the idea, and I did end up liking the revelations Emily made about her mother. The romance aspect is predictable, but still could have added a lot to the main plot. The plot isn't my problem with this one - it's the writing and the characters.

Mainly, Lipstick Apology isn't even written like a novel, but like you normally talk. And while Emily's voice is pretty authentic, in my opinion, you shouldn't write a book like that - choppy, melodramatic - I could just listen to one of my friends tell me about their day it that's what I wanted. It's literature, and it should be written accordingly. I don't know if that's just me, but I think a writer should be able to convey what they're trying to tell the reader with literary means, and not just put entire sentences in all-capps or italic. Sure, that's fine every once in a while, but not on every page. Sometimes, in between that type of writing, there are a few passages attempting to sound deep, that actually could have been pretty good, if they didn't seem so out of place because of the general style, and if they weren't so melodramatic.

The characters are my other main problem. Emily is, in one word, annoying. While I could understand her being torn between Owen and Anthony at first, it got old fast, and she made a way too big deal out of it. Okay, she wants to be popular, but wouldn't befriending the two most popular girls in school (which also isn't realistc, if she's as shy and socially awkward as she describes herself) already make her popular? Dating Owen made her even more popular, but I don't think that little thing is enough to make someone make the choices she made. I didn't feel her grief at all - most of the time she doesn't seem sad at all - she's just a normal, giddy, slightly annoying teenager. Her mood swings are crazy. She goes from being normal and happy to being angry and screaming at everyone around her for no reason in a second, making it almost impossible to relate to her.

The secondary characters fall flat. All of them are clichés and have one personality trait that becomes their entire person - Owen is a player, Anthony is the geeky, nice one, Andi is the bitch, her friend (whose name I cannot even remember - now what does that tell you?) is supportive, etc. I didn't build up a connection to any of the characters and didn't end up caring about what happened to them. I have to say, though, that I really liked Trent - yes, he's also a clichéd chracter, but he's a fun one!

Another thing that annoyed me is that there is no character growth. The description (the "and ultimately heal" part) makes you think it'll be about Emily accepting her parents' death and moving on, but I don't think there's a difference between Emily at the beginning and Emily at the end - other than her knowing what her mother meant with her "lipstick apology". In my opinion, that revelation had no effect on Emily's process of moving on, other than throwing some anger in there and never resolving it.

No, Lipstick Apology isn't terrible, and if plot is what's most important to you and you're looking for a quick read, go ahead and read this one. Just don't expect anything touching or insightful. If you're like me and writing and characters are important to you, I would not recommend Lipstick Apology - choppy, melodramatic writing and flat characters made it hard for me to enjoy this book.