Review: fun, but with errors.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 17, 2013
Where Unintened succeeded:Unintended is a totally predictable coming of age providing the awkwardness and excitement of first love that left me sated for an afternoon. O'Shea did a nice job of captivating the essence of being a teenager who is finally intrigued with someone, but doesn't recognize that this feeling is want. Nor do they know how to proceed with this feeling, but discover that stumbling through, sometimes works out.Where it failed:The writing lacked.On the technical side, the author's use of "kinda" instead of "kind of," is just down right unforgivable. "Kinda" is not only spoken by characters, it is also used in non-dialogue, descriptive portions of the book. The author also uses the word "than" when she meant to use the word "then." And the use of "a" where "an" should have been used is another glaring example of how an astute copy editor could have benefitted this book.O'Shea's knack for storytelling leaves room for improvement as well. The main issue being that she writes as (I imagine) she speaks. What I mean by this, is that she relays the story as one might if they were speaking to a friend. The reader is told that Alex and Taylor get along well, that it is very easy for them to talk about books and music and movies, that they laugh together, understand each other, spend every day together. But only given glimpses of them doing any of these things. Much more of the story is derived from being directly told to the reader, than by the dialogue and action.Furthermore, it is written in a manner that juxtaposes present day with their unfolding relationship ten years earlier. I found that the present day inserts added nothing to the story other than annoyance for interrupting how their relationship began - which was the story line I was primarily interested in. If they were meant to demonstrate how strong Alex and Taylor's love is and that it lasted, I believe this could have been accomplished with a condensed epilogue.Why Unintended gets 3 stars:As many YA's often are - it was as ridiculous as teenagers. However, as long as you understand this and are in the mood for some good old teenager ridiculousness, then it is a fun read. For about three quarters of the book, the strife that should be most difficult for Taylor and Alex to overcome, is so easily resolved it is a virtual non-event in the book. Almost too easy for our main characters to get away with. Then in the last quarter of the book, a misunderstanding, which never should have occurred, could have been resolved easily and without melodrama instead of the eye rolling extravaganza that ensued. I groaned at how mushy these two were and nearly gagged at their puppy dog love for one another. But in secret, it made me smile, too.I rolled my eyes a lot at parts in this book, but will admit for $0.99 and a quick read, I say I got my monies worth.