Book Review Nine: The Day I Shot Cupid

The Day I shot Cupid by Jennifer Love Hewitt, published by Hyperion.

Okay, I will admit it. I am Jennifer Love Hewitt's biggest fan. I am not ashamed. I have her CDs, almost all of her movies, have watched every episode of Ghost Whisperer, collected magazine articles and newspaper clippings in a binder and even tried to find her when I traveled to Burbank, California where she lives. I therefore, ABSOLUTELY HAD TO get this book when it came out. (psst, it's 20% off at Barnes and Noble right now).

Main facts: This is a self-improvement type book on dating and relationships. There are a few tidbits in there about Jennifer's love life. It's 196 pages, relatively short, and was read by me in about an hour and a half. There are two sections written by people other than JLH; Jamie Kennedy (her boyfriend at the time) and Stevie, her trainer. Jamie Kennedy offers encouragement for big butts on women and Stevie emphasizes a good workout regimen after a break-up. This book also has cute caricatures of JLH as a tiny woman with huge breasts, and a lot of humor about the silly things women do for love, and how she literally has to shoot Cupid in order to move on in the dating world.

My opinion: I love Jennifer, I seriously do (in a role model way, not in a creepy way) but I was disappointed. I wanted more stories from her experiences. I wanted some kind of tabloid juicy gossip about past relationships. I wanted to know if the clingy rumors were true about her and Ross! I wanted to know about the Carson Daly situation, and Rich from LFO. But I guess I'll never know, and it was respectful of her to leave names out (after all, she's no Kathy Griffin). She offered cute advice, something that would be helpful and inspiring to desperate, lonely women who are like those in He's Just Not That Into You. However, it was full of common sense information to me. I already know that trust and communication are important in a relationship. I already know not to force my man into marriage. I already know about meeting the parents and feeling comfortable with "us" and myself. But it was a cute read full of her delightful silly comments.

Example: How to spoon when your boyfriend doesn't want to, "Play it cool until he falls asleep and then Velcro yourself to him, quickly and with very little motion (think Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible) And then, if and when he wakes, turn quickly, like you were just stretching, and wait. When the little lamb sleeps again One . . . Two . . . Three . . . Velcro!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (pg 47-48). Haha, I found that passage hilarious.

Pretty much the book is inspiring to women and tries to teach us to be ourselves and not to be too serious about love. You'll fall in and out of love throughout your life, as long as you love yourself you'll be happy in the long run. Try to think positive about yourself, after all, we all have flaws. She even states that we all have cellulite.

The book is supposed to be either for men or women but there's a clear bias in favor of the women. She can just associate with them more, nothing wrong with that. If you ever need a little boost, love Jennifer Love Hewitt, or are suffering major heart ache and still don't know the "common sense" things about love, pick up The Day I shot Cupid.

Book Review Eight: I Heart You, You Haunt Me

I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder, published by Simon Pulse.

I just spent an hour at the library completely captivated by this book. It was a quick read, mainly because it was written in verse format. Also, it's easy to follow. It's about a girl who loses a boy only to find that his love remains with her in new form. I won't ruin it for you, only that it's haunting her, as suggested in the title. I lost track of time with this novel. It gobbles you up and spits you out. Especially if you know the feeling of being overwhelmed by love. Or the feeling of loss.

I'm in love with someone who I constantly fear losing. Whether it be to someone else, himself, or to the after-life. I just know I wouldn't be able to cope, and immediately felt sympathetic for the main character, Ava. She was completely in love with Jackson. She was flooded with memories of their time together and longed to see him again, speak to him again, touch him one last time. Nothing anyone could say would make her feel better, and I can empathize. When you're going through a hard time you feel like being alone. You don't want to fake a smile and hang out with friends. You want to sleep to get away, or cry to drown out the pain.

This novel was stirring, yet hopeful. Poetic, yet simple. Schroeder doesn't bog the reader down with useless information or too many facts. She doesn't create more of a life than she needs to for her characters. You know the important things about the characters through Ava's eyes. You feel what Ava feels and that's it. You don't have to know if she has grandparents or what her favorite subject in school is. You just know that she's a girl and she's trapped by her grief. I like the simplicity in that mainly because it's ironic. Love isn't simple. It's complicated and it can consume you until you feel like there's nothing left of you.

The writing was good. It was direct, at times cheesy (such as line breaks that look like the words they wish to portray:

f

a

l

l

i

n

g)

However, other times it was just beautiful:

"I feel him

move closer to me.

The smell of him

fills me up.

It makes the hairs

on my arms

stand up straight." (pg. 62)

"I'm swimming

in the

warm sea

of his

kisses

once again." (pg. 97)

The content is well written, whereas the form is not. I guess this just reiterates that I don't like verse novels. I appreciate what they are trying to accomplish, I appreciate how quickly they are to read, however they are never as idiosyncratic, inventive, or creative as I would like them to be. However, I completely recommend this novel, it'll make you look at life and death in a new way, it'll make you feel better about love, and it will allow you to cross one more author from the Rochester Teen Lit Festival off your list.