Review: Waiting for You By: Susane Colasanti

Title: Waiting for You
Author: Susane Colasanti
Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 336 Pages (May 14, 2009)
From: Amazon/Christmas Gift

Synopsis: At the beginning of her sophomore year, Marisa is ready for a fresh start and, more importantly, a boyfriend. So when the handsome and popular Derek asks her out, Marisa thinks her long wait for happiness is over. But several bumps in the road—including her parents’ unexpected separation, a fight with her best friend, and a shocking disappointment in her relationship with Derek—test Marisa’s ability to maintain her new outlook. Only the anonymous DJ, whose underground podcasts have the school’s ear, seems to understand what Marisa is going through. But she has no idea who he is—or does she?

In this third romantic novel from Susane Colasanti, Marisa learns how to “be in the Now” and realizes that the love she’s been waiting for has been right in front of her all along.

Review: 3.5 Stars - This was the first book I've read by Susane Colasanti and while it was a nice... it just didn't wow me. The story and the characters were enjoyable enough to keep my interest, making this an easy and quick read that I would have been able to finish in one sitting if I had more time when I first picked up the book.

The story between our main characters was often predictable. Marisa is the girl who wants to reinvent herself and try to figure out not only who she is, but what she wants - with the start of a new year in High School. Her crush is the popular guy, Derek who doesn't really even know who Marisa is. She ends up paired with boy, Nash who is a neighborhood friend from her past to work on a class project. It was the classic story of Invisible girl crushing on popular boy, Nerdy boy crushing on invisible girl. Not to forget about the quirky sidekick Sterling, or the mystery DJ that the school's talking about and was pretty easy to figure out whom this mysterious DJ was early on in the book.

By about halfway through reading you knew just where each character was headed and what was going to happen with the turn of each page. Not that it was bad, just no surprises.

Throughout the story we learn all that Marisa has been through last year and what she's dealing with now as her family hits a few pumps in the road. As a reader we see her struggle to keep a grasp on things around her as she tires not to slip back into anxiety that troubled her much of the year before. I was able to connect with Marisa in this aspect of her life as she struggles with anxiety. This part of the story was well written and shows us all that something such as anxiety can hit anyone and anytime, with no rhyme or reason.

The highlights were references to John Mayer songs and how each song can be a truth for just about anyone during various stages in your life. I did really enjoy these little references throughout the book and it was little things like that that made me enjoy this further.

I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

FTC Disclaimer: I DID (this book was given as a Christmas gift by a family member) pay for this book and have NOT been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this review.