MAJOR CRUSH: A Review :)

"True love can really sweep a girl off her feet"

(Spoiler free. Read on!)

TITLE: Major Crush (The Romantic Comedies)
AUTHOR/s: Jennifer Echols
PUBLICATION DATE: 1st of August, 2006
AVAILABLE AT: Amazon | The Book Depository

A few days ago, I've read my first Jennifer Echols book which is Biggest Flirts (Check my review HERE!) Even though it didn't work for me, I decided to give her another shot and since I'm a big fan of the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies, I checked this one out.

Here are my two cents on Major Crush :)

16-year old Virginia Saunter is the drum major of her school band. The thing that makes it so complicated is that she shares the spot with Drew Morrow, last year's drum major who doesn't seem so happy about the arrangements. To make matters worse, their first show was a total disaster. Now their new band director, Mr. Rush, is giving the drum majors a choice: play nice or surrender the position to Clayton Porridge, another aspiring drum major.

Initial thought: Jennifer Echols has a thing for School Bands (especially drums) and piercings. I noticed this after consecutively reading two of her books that involves this stuff.

Anyway, for the story itself, it was pretty alright. I have mixed feelings about the characters though. Virginia was actually funny and she made me smile several times over. The problem with her is that I didn't like some of the things she did like trying to use her best guy friend, who has the hots for her, to make her frenemy Drew jealous. It was immature for her to do and low. It kinda matched up to the Evil Twins' acts.

On the other hand, I also have the same feeling about the guy lead, Drew. I don't really get who he really is because I think that he's pretty bipolar. One moment he's this cute, charming guy then the other, he's a ticking time bomb. He's mature at some points but acts "irresponsibly" at times. He did some things that irritated me.

Story-wise, it was light, humorous, and fluffy (hooray for all the fluff!) I love the cutie scenes between the two frenemies and the events that drew them to each other (The dip thing was superb and the usual I'm-sick-please-take-care-of-me stunt never gets old for me haha!) Major Crush dealt with racism and sexism too. The former was shown to be wrong but the latter was less defended and it seemed like gender roles were highly imposed (in a bad way, for me)

Family issues as well as friendship topics and societal differences are touched which is a good thing. Mr. Rush was hilarious and unlike the other usual teacher roles but I think his character's not very realistic (from Pizza Guy to Head band director? And isn't he too young to hold the position? and is it even possible that he gets that after he flunked percussion? Though the last one was explained, I still think it's sketchy.)

"That's why it's called a crush. It weighs you down and keeps you from doing what you really want to do." -Virginia

"It's not all about you (...) And sometimes, you don't get what you want." -Walter

"You look beautiful. You always look beautiful." -Drew

"I didn't want to be the girl who glittered and danced in front of the band. I wanted to be the girl in charge of the band. Glittering will only get you so far." -Virginia

Overall, it was alright. Better than Biggest Flirts but I bet Jennifer Echols could do better. I'm sure she does since I believe that Major Crush is her debut novel. The book's like a diamond in the rough.

It's also refreshing to see that the female lead is more well off than the male lead. The revelations in the ending was quite surprising. I didn't actual expect that and I'm saying that this one's a good thing! 4/5 rating for Jennifer Echols' Major Crush :)

4/5 rating :)