Thursday, February 22, 2007

I'll Be There For You, Review for Gotta Write Network


I'll Be There For You
By Ellen Fisher
Contemporary Romance
Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1-59998-038-X
Novella, 130 pages
June 2006

Jeri Winston and Alexander Frost have been best friends since high school but Alexander has secretly carried a torch for Jeri the whole time. When an old high school crush of Jeri's shows up and is interested in her she decides to see if she can change history and finally win the most popular guy in school. Xander realizes he had better find a way to make her notice that he is more than just a friend and fast and starts turning up the heat.

Will Jeri be able to move past her old defenses and find the love of her life or will she settle for the man she once thought unattainable just because he's the prize catch from her past?

This tale is all at once funny and poignant. I think both the hero and heroine are relatable to so many of us. You get: That feeling that we were so geeky in high school and that the popular kids were unattainable. The feeling that you have at your high school reunion when you notice the geeks are suddenly hot and that popular girl isn't quite what she once was. The feeling you get when you look at your best friend and suddenly realize he's the one you've been wanting your whole life, while you were busy looking elsewhere.

Ms. Fisher has done a great job of building likeable characters and giving them many layers. In a short time you are rooting for Alexander and hating Connor, but then you think that Connor is a decent guy and you aren't sure if Jeri even deserves Alexander. Then you change your mind again. There are parts where you just tell the heroine to "get over it. Why can't you see that he's awesome and so are you?" Then you realize what she went through as a teenager in that very impressionable time and you forgive her.

All in all, I’ll Be There for You is a great read and a wonderful, feel good story. It is a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Sometimes what you seek has always been there.

I give it 4.5 prom dates out of 5

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posted by Michelle @ 11:37 p.m. Comments: 0