That Boy by Jillian Dodd

That Boy by Jillian Dodd
Published: Jillian Dodd Inc., January 13th, 2014
Pages: 303
Source: e-book, purchased
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 2/5

How I Felt: The end of this book is what got it a second star. About 90% of this had me rolling my eyes and trying not to scream. I picked this book up because I wanted a cute, quick romance that I could read trying to come off a fantasy kick. Nope. I didn't get that at all. All I got was frustration.

First I want to talk about the narration. Jayden was incredibly immature. This book starts off when she's a young child. It's the story of her growing up with her neighbours and friends Danny and Philip. I thought she would mature as the story went on and she got older but no. It was the same narration when she was a child and when she was 21. I couldn't stand the immaturity. Her decision making was awful, and I was repeatedly screaming at the book trying to knock some sense into her. Also, her narration bothered the heck out of me. I'm not sure if it's the writing or just Jayden herself. I don't know if it was supposed to be part of her character but it was too much for me. She would think about something and then go off on a rant in her head. It got so annoying. She literally talked about the history of beanpoles for a few pages and provided a legitimate definition.  Quotes from a dictionary. I can't.

More on the writing, I also didn't like how J.J. would address the reader. She would say things along the lines of "You probably already guessed that." Personally, I hate this in books. I don't want the character to address me because when I read it's a chance for me to escape my world and become the character. It just seems a little unnatural to me when it's less of a stream of consciousness and more like a voice-over in a movie.

One of the biggest things that annoyed me in this book was the constant use of the phrase "That boy." Yes, I understand that is the title of the book but I don't think it needs to be used every time J.J. describes someone of the male species. Again, cue the eye roll.

Also, since this book follows Jayden as she grows up we often skip and gloss over years at a time. I really didn't like how this worked out because it usually just had J.J. recapping the last few months or years very quickly and brushing everything off. I didn't really like that because it stopped the flow of the story and really slowed down the plot. It made things choppy and the author often had to backtrack anyway to catch the reader up on all the time that passed. I don't think the time lapse was executed as well as it should have been.

The part with Danny, Philip and Jayden's parents in the hot tub. Gross. Ew. Stop.

I thought that Jayden's flirtatious personality she developed as she grew up felt forced. I mean when she was younger she was completely oblivious to everything and then the book fast-forwards a few years and she's a master of all the arts. Ok. It annoyed me that she took everything too far and just went "who cares" and made Phillip clean up her mess. It felt like her character was forced to become 'cool' so she was placed in situations that felt unnatural to me. I understand she was growing and changing but it didn't feel consistent. If that makes sense.

Now, what did I like? To be honest, sadly, not much. Phillip is what really made this book for me. I loved how he was always there for J.J. no matter what they were going through. Fighting or not e always went out of his way to make sure she was okay. I was almost ready to slap her for what she did at the end.

Sadly, a lot of this review is full of negative things. But I really couldn't find too much to say I liked about it and that pains me. I was so looking forward to enjoying this book and gobbling it up.

Overall, I didn't really enjoy this book. A lot of reviews I've seen though have been positive so if this is something that sounds like you might like give it a shot. I personally don't recommend it.

 Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*
*Image taken from Google.ca