I LOVE Keplinger's books. DUFF was amazing and romantic and made me feel all fuzzy inside.

Lying Out Loud was well written, like most of Keplinger's YA, but the plot was just... Unrealistic.

I know cat fishing is real, but I was SO FRUSTRATED by how long it took for Sonny or Amy to get over it and fess up. I literally had to take a break from reading I was so mad at Sonny. I mean, he likes her and she just never says anything?? Really?? Yeah right.

Sorry, rant over. The sub plot was actually very well done.

I was torn between 2 or 3 stars for this one. A bit of background context: I was reading a whole bunch of mystery and thrillers for #buzzwordathon round 2 (2019) at the time, and I needed something light in between to break the rhythm. I'd say this book did the job - it was light, didn't require much thinking, and it was surely entertaining.

I quite liked how Sonny, the main character, was far from perfect. It made a good story how she had to deal with the consequence of her negative actions. Having said that, my problem with the plot was that for a lot of the problems the main character was put through, the resolutions were very oversimplified. She was lucky enough to have a perfectly nice and able family to somehow support her entire life easily, despite of her horrible behaviours. I'm not really a fan of fairy-godmother solution.

The positive surprise for me was that I couldn't put the book down. And being a light reading, I flew through the pages and finished the book in a short amount of time. I did feel entertained after reading it, so it was a fairly good experience for me.

I enjoyed the book, again we have well written characters and though they aren't perfect they are interesting people and they are human. From the title of the book you could probably guess that the main character lies a lot. This book has more of a plot than 'a midsummer's nightmare' and I enjoyed the story a lot more. There were a lot of twists and turns and is all about confrontations. There are mistakes made and there are even cameos from the other characters in the other 3 books previously written by this author so you will want to read this one last as not to spoil the ending to them for yourself. Throughout the 4 books by this author set in the same place you get a feel for the place as a whole with its different charters and the different places they visit. Overall I enjoyed the book a lot

I went into this book wanting a quick, light-hearted fun read and that is exactly what I got. Having previously read the DUFF, I knew that Keplinger’s books were fun and easy to read and since I am going through exams, I didn’t want to read a book that required a lot of thought and this certainly didn’t.

Let’s start off with what I liked about this book. I found the romance to be quite cute and adorable which is was great because after reading the blurb, I was certain that I’d hate it. However, Ryder and Sonny developed a real connection and I thought this was great because it shows how someone’s personality can completely change your first impression of them.

Read more of my review at: https://thereadingfangirl.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/lying-out-loud-by-kody-keplinger/

I wrote a review on my blog.

I’ve had this book for ages and it’s been in my suitcase on at least 3 holidays, but I never actually got around to reading it. I guess I was a bit scared that it would be a bit too childish.

But after reading, I don’t think I had much to worry about. I mean, obviously it’s a book aimed at teenage girls, but it wasn’t as dumbed down as I thought it would be, and I found myself caught up in the story much more than I thought I would.

As the title says, the book is about a girl who considers herself ‘the duff’ of her group – the designated ugly fat friend. That is, she does after a boy rather kindly points it out to her.

Bianca hates this guy with a passion, but as you can probably guess, she ends up falling for him.

But the book wasn’t all wishy-washy love, it also tackled some more difficult subjects like her parent’s divorce and her father’s alcoholism. This was a saving grace for the book as it stopped it being too girly and childish. Even the evolving love story between Bianca and Wesley had a lot of substance to it, not just a girl mooning over the hottest boy in school.

I had a couple of favourite quotes from the book, mostly coming after Bianca realises that although she considers herself to be ‘the duff’, her two best friends also consider themselves as ‘the duff’ of the group. It’s so true that as women, we seem to focus on our own flaws and see the best in other people, putting ourselves down and making ourselves feel inferior for no reason.

“Calling Vikki a slut or a whore was just like calling somebody the Duff. It was insulting and hurtful, and it was one of those titles that just fed off the inner fear every girl must have from time to time. Slut, bitch, prude, tease, ditz. They were all the same. Every girl felt like one of these sexist labels described her at some point.”

Review published on http://louiser89.com/2016/04/15/kody-keplinger-the-duff

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I actually liked this book more than The Duff. I found myself so involved in Sonny's life. I cared about the way she was messing up her relationships, I worried about her, my heart ached when it came to her family, my heart soared when something good happened to her. She was, by no means, a perfect character. In fact, Sonny was very, very flawed. However, she had a good heart and she never meant for things to play out they way they did. I loved that Keplinger allowed us to catch back up with Bianca and Wesley. That is one of my favorite things about companion books -- that opportunity to see what happened after the story ended. I hope to meet more of the residents of Hamilton

I have this thing, where I have to like the protagonist in YA contemporary to enjoy the book. Luckily I really liked Bianca a lot as well as Wesley. Bianca was very cynical about everything, but I found it very refreshing. Wesley was kind of an asshole (but not 100% a dick) but I think it was part of the charm. I also found the plot to be, while predictable, different to most YA.
Overall, a great, funny, a bit clichéd read

3.5-4.0 stars
I didn't like it as much as I loved the DUFF, but it was still really good. It isn't really a companion novel to the DUFF though. I had high hopes for this book, seeing as it was the companion novel to the DUFF and Kody promised us major appearances from both Wesley & Bianca. Yeah, where the dipshit are they? They get mentioned a few times and even appear like, at the ending but that's about it.

Sonny was a very weird lady, I mean I didn't hate her or anything but she came across as a total wannabe, sorry Kody, but that's so annoying.

Amy wasn't very interesting, I mean, who on earth can be this nice? My theory is that she secretly has voodoo dolls hidden in her closet and sticks pins in them at least once a week, but that's my theory.

Ryder, yeah, let's just say I'm not a big fan of Ryder's, I mean, comparing him to Wesley, which I totally shouldn't do, but still do, he's so lame. He's like Toby Tucker lame. You get the idea, right?

The plotline was okay, it wasn't very strong and did get a little frustrating at times, but it wasn't bad or anything, it just didn't get close to the DUFF.

The background stories were a little predictable at times, well, except for Sonya's though, I at one point thought her mother was dead. ( THAT WAS NOT A SPOILER< CHILL YOUR TITS FOLKS! )

Can we all just be silent for a minute, cuz Amy has like the best parents ever, I mean they are so incredibly nice!

And the scene with the stocking, I had this huge grin plastered on my face, one of my friends even asked me if I was doing okay.

That part was so sweet and omfg, it was so sweet and it really shows family love.

Wesley sort of still turned this book into something good, if he hadn't appeared, I would've given this book 2,5 stars.

For a more detailed review, please check out my review below:

Debra's Book Cafe


Debs :-)