This was a pretty good YA book. When Megan's mom, who's been single for as long as Megan can remember, decides to start dating, Megan's not quite sure that's a good idea. I love the tight relationship that Megan and her mom, Suze, have in this book. When Suze dates her first guy, Megan is not at all impressed by him. Megan send a small prayer, wishing her mom to find someone worthy of her. Shortly thereafter Guy, a new guy to Megan's school, who is hotter than sin itself, comes to town and has his sights set on Megan. And enter Armando--everything she wished for her mom to find except now that Suze is dating Armando, Megan doesn't like it.

It has such hysterical elements and antics that are so typical of a teenager. A definite indicator of the age group of the teens (around 15-ish) is the maturity level - or immaturity level - of them. I wasn't sure of Guy throughout the novel but the end helped me put him into perspective. Megan made an interesting heroine. She humiliated herself so many times in order to help keep her mom safe and alienated herself from her best friends, Matt and Erin. And they, Matt and Erin, along with Armando and Guy, are NOT what the seem or who they say they are. This was a nicely played out mystery with some twists that, while easy to keep straight, kept me intrigued from start to finish.

It was nice and easy read and can't wait to start Book 2, Earth Angel. I will post my review of that one when I'm finished.

Review copy courtesy of the author, at no cost, in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Megan Barnett lives with her mom, Suze, in Glendale, Arizona.
She has 2 best friends.
Matt Dawson, who she has known since Kindergarten, and Erin, who she has known since 4th Grade.
They are inseparable.
Her life is going great. That is, until her mother decides she wants to start dating again.
Not cool.
How is going to look if her 39 year old mother has a boyfriend and Megan doesn't?
She can't let that happen. She has to convince Suze to not to go out on dates but not make it seem like she's against it.
How difficult can that be?

This book was hilarious! I didn't expect to like it because I'm sick of all the paranormal romance books, but this book wasn't like the rest.
It was very funny and get this, the main character ISN”T an idiot. YAY!

Highly reccomended. ( )

Book Title: Boyfriend From Hell

Author: E. Van Lowe

Published By: White Whisker Books

Genre: Young Adult

Recommended Age: 13+

Reviewed By: Emily Tuley / AngelsCryHavoc

Blog Reviewed For: Great Minds Think Aloud Literary Community

Rating: 3.5 Ravens

This was hard to decide as the story and the basis were very good however, I had a few complaints on just a few things. Before I delve into those I want to touch on the other things that made me really enjoy this book and why it’s one of the first half points I’ve EVER given in a review. The story of Megan and her mother was very realistic and touching on some levels. The close friendship between the single mom and only daughter kept a smile on my face as it’s often not the case with most books and the single parent a lot of times the child is rebellious of the parent seems detached, self centered and clueless. The disconnection of the family making it easier to pull the teen off on the adventure and not focus the story around the family at all. I was glad to see that the mother held a very significant part and that the story was about more than the teenage love affair. Megan was even at times that frustrating teenager that I myself wanted to ground and send to her room for a while cause of her attitude. Then when the reasons were shown it was even better in truth out of her anger and jealousy it showed that it was love she had for her friends and family causing her reactions and doing the things she was doing.

Now to touch on the topic of Guy I have to agree to an extent with a lot of others and some that I have talked and shared this book with. We wish there was a little more involvement with him aside from the small specs of him here and there it left him being almost obscure perhaps that was in preparation for the second book in this series and perhaps there we will see more of his roll within this series but, If not I’m a little torn as to the purpose of Guy at all other than that paranormal love interest of the heroine girl. Which leads to my final thing of happiness, I’m glad to see a girl that is so not so dependant upon a male or someone else to save her or help the situation rather I got to see not one but two very strong girls with two different backgrounds come together to make a united front against Satan as they try to save Megan’s mother as well as each other. Maudy the outcast girl was pulled in and I loved the way the author formed the unlikely friendship between the two girls and showed that true friendship is in the oddest places.

Between the risk of loosing everyone she loves, loosing her best friends and being stabbed in the back by one of them. It’s a paranormal tail that I really enjoyed and actually look forward to the next book . I just wish this one would have been a little longer and perhaps a little more detail however that lead to my 3.5 rating as it was a really good book and really great concept just needed a little more in the nudge of detail for me. ( )

I had high hopes for Boyfriend from Hell when I requested it from Library Thing, but it fell a little short of my expectations. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun read, but it felt a little underdeveloped.

The characters are few that their lack of depth makes them caricatures. I wanted to shake Megan. She starts off the book as an incredibly immature teen, and while she does develop into a stronger person along the way, I'm still not sure I liked her very much.

Part of the problem for me was the short chapters (1-3 pages on average). Mr. Van Lowe managed to complete his story advancement in that amount of space, but without the elaboration it so richly deserved, it came off as choppy.

The plot devices were also killers (Who gets kicked off the Mathletes for kissing?!? Seriously?!?) though the story was was amusing, the plot twist, which I should have seen coming a mile off but didn't (probably due to the fact that I wasn't terribly invested in the story), was just one leap of faith too many for me. It made the story seem trite.

This is probably an excellent read for a teen who is not a reader. It's not overly complicated and it has very few characters to keep track of making it easy to put down and pick back up again. However, an experienced teen will find it trivial, and an adult that reads YA will find it not worth their time.

http://www.girlsjustreading.blogspot.com/2012/01/jenns-review-boyfriend-from-hel... ( )

This was every teen book ever... right down to the misunderstood bad boy and a depressing death. Not to mention about 3 or so "twists" that were terribly obvious. I'll admit, I did misjudge one character, but overall this book was merely blah. If you have nothing else to read and you like teen fiction (paranormal or not, honestly), it'll pass the time. Everything about it was mediocre. I wish I could explain why, but it honestly felt like I'd read the book before...more than once.