#86 Book Review: Love Shy

Love Shy
Release Date: April 1st 2012
Author: Lili Wilkinson
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Source: Publisher for Review
Format: Paperback
Where to Buy: Fishpond
More Info: Goodreads

Summary from Goodreads:
Penny is a schoolgirl investigative journalist in search of a story. And she finds one: a boy at her school who is painfully love-shy. Surely he's the perfect subject for a feature article. What could possibly go wrong?

Penny Drummond aspires to be a journalist. A good one. A Pulitzer prize-winning journalist. In the meantime, she's honing her journalistic skills on the East Glendale Secondary College Gazette. When she discovers a boy at her school is posting anonymous messages on loveshy.com, Penny believes she has found just the story that will help make her name. Her mission: find him, fix him, feature-article him. Next stop: Pulitzer Prize.

But what will become of her 'journey of the soul' article if the love-shy boy is not who she expects? And what happens when Penny finds that her soul might be in need of a little attention as well?

Love-Shy is a lively, entertaining and warm-hearted romantic comedy filled with serious secrets, ambitious plans, awkward moments and unexpected friendships - funny and engaging to the very last page.  

My review:

Cover:
The girl kind of looks like how I imagined Penny. I don't really understand what that bowl looking glass with the stones inside of it is but it's a creative and fun-looking cover! 

4 Forget-Me-Not flowers for the cover!

Story:


I am Pezzimist and I am a love-shy.

Penny is trying to figure out who Pezzimist is. She is a journalist student and wants to write an article about this guy (of course it's going to be Anonymous). Pezzimist is a love-shy. It means that he feels uncomfortable around girls. He wants to interact with girls, but he's just too shy. Penny wants to help him. And who knows, in the process of helping him she can get a Pulitzer Prize!

This book was fun. I like the story and it's really unique! Love Shy is written from Penny's POV. The idea of love-shy itself is really interesting. I never noticed that sometimes boys can feel too shy around girls. Usually boys are really confident and brave but in fact, some of them are just not. It's really fun reading about how Penny tries to find out who Pezzimist is and when she does, I love reading how she tries to help him. Wilkinson's writing style is fun and engaging, and the school setting is absolutely great. Although, this book didn't quite hooked me into the story and sometimes the pacing felt quite slow to me. There were parts that I found quite boring and it didn't make me want to keep on reading. It actually took me a while to finish the book. Nevertheless, the ending pleased me and it was overall an enjoyable read!

Characters:
Penny is a strong-willed girl who will not give up when she decides to do something. The moment she is set on writing a story about Pezzimist, she keeps on trying to find him and even interviewed the boys in the school with random questions which are hilarious. Imagine you being approached by some random person who starts asking you random questions about your love life! That must be really embarrassing sometimes. Pezzimist is quite a sad character. Being love-shy is not easy. I can feel his pain, sadness and the need to change and stop being a love-shy. I enjoyed reading about Penny and Pezzimist's relationship and also Penny's friends such as Hamish and Rin!

Overall:
Do you know what love-shy means? Do you want to know how to identify a love-shy person and how to help them? Read this book! Love Shy is a fun, hilarious and great book which will answer these questions. The determined Penny is about to write her best article yet about love-shy!

3 Forget-Me-Not flowers for Love Shy!

Thank you Allen & Unwin for the review copy!