#BookReview: Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert with Spoilers

Reviewed By: Jessica P. 

Publisher:  Little, Brown Books 

Recommended Age: Young Adult 

Genre: Contemporary

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:

Since she was seven years old, Yvonne has had her trusted violin to keep her company, especially in those lonely days after her mother walked out on their family. But with graduation just around the corner, she is forced to face the hard truth that she just might not be good enough to attend a conservatory after high school.

Full of doubt about her future, and increasingly frustrated by her strained relationship with her successful but emotionally closed-off father, Yvonne meets a street musician and fellow violinist who understands her struggle. He’s mysterious, charming, and different from Warren, the familiar and reliable boy who has her heart. But when Yvonne becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she has to make the most difficult decision yet about her future.





About the Author: Brandy Colbert was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. Her debut novel, Pointe, won the 2014 Cybils Award for young adult fiction and was named a best book of 2014 by Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed, Book Riot, and more. She was chosen as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for spring 2014. She is also the author of Little & Lion, which was a Junior Library Guild and a Book of the Month Club selection, and Finding Yvonne. Brandy lives in Los Angeles and works as a copy editor.

   

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: I really wanted to love this one but it pretty much lost me early on. Within the first 6 pages, it talks about pot and how the main character smokes it as well as her dad. And well I have gone over 30 years without doing drugs and with today's society, I do not think that pretty saying its ok to do this in a young adult title was the right choice. 

Do I Recommend this book? Not really this one had a lot of issues. 

Notes and Opinions: First off this book had a ton of issues for this reader. Creating this post I found that my thoughts on this one are unpopular as most of the reviews I have seen for this one are raving 5 stars. For me, this one fell far from that mark. From the first few pages, we have Yvonne's dad smoking pot as well as finding out that she does it as well. This didn't sit well with me that this title pretty much said that it was an ok thing to do.  

Next on my list was the cheating aspect of the story.  This book starts with Yvonne not officially dating her father's sous chef Warren who is three years older than she is.  I really don't see the issue with them dating (for the fact that myself and my husband are three years apart) but I fully understood Warren's choice to not want to be sexually active with Yvonne until she was 18.  I think a better choice here would have been for them to talk about it and not hide it from her father. 

This one has some major insta-love in it as well as cheating as a way to get back at someone. This is another aspect of the book that just didn't work for me at all. The love triangle the author attempted to do just didn't work out at all. And the Yvonne lying to both guys she liked was a really bad choice although not the worst of the title.  

I thought this was going to be about a girl who finds out she was pregnant but even that aspect of the book doesn't come up until more than a third of the way through. It was pushed to the back of the main story and just felt weird for its placing. And by the end of the book, you have no idea who the father is and nothing is really resolved.  The sex in this one is another issue. Although I do fully believe that someone who is 17+ can do what they like in that department it is also good to respect your own body. And well-having sex with two guys within a week of each other is just a no go and this just made the book fall apart more for this reader.  

Going forward I think this book would be a good one for teens to read on what NOT to do.  Read this then don't do what Yvonne did!  That is my full take away from this one. 

Go Into This One Knowing: Sex, Drugs, Cheating, Love Triangle (badly done), Insta-Love, Teen Pregnancy 

 

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Posted in: 2 Stars, Jessica P., Little Brown for Young Readers, Review