Review: Why Can't these Characters be Real???
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 1, 2013
This is the third time I've started typing out this review, THIRD TIME!! I am still at a loss for words in how to talk about this, what is in my opinion the BEST BOOK in Jenn Cooksey's fantastic Grab Your Pole series.My love for Jenn started nearly a year ago when she approached me and asked me to review her new book, Shark Bait. I was a bit nervous, I don't read indie books. (Or I didn't.) But it took only two pages to have me hooked. I read it one sitting, and it remains one of four books I have ever re-read (another being her second book, The Other Fish in the Sea) and I have to say it remains one of my top ten books EVER. And now? Shark Out of Water may have bumped Shark Bait a little farther down on the list.She ended TOFitS with a MASSIVE cliffhanger. Most of my Bookish friends, myself included, shared a love/hate relationship with Jenn for the past few months as we anxiously awaited SOoW's release. (Of course I can't even talk about the cliffhanger without spoiling these books, and they are books I definitely do NOT want to spoil!!)Now, Shark Out of Water may be my favorite book. I don't just mean of the series.  (And that says a lot from a person who reads 125+ books per year!) It's real. It's Raw. It's funny. It's heartbreaking. I can honestly say I was on an emotional roller coaster for the five hours it took me to read this one. (Yes, I timed myself... I'm admittedly a dork.) And I loved every minute of it. There were times I debated putting it down, so that I wouldn't finish it.(I know this isn't much of a review - but again, I just can't spoil this one!)This book is from the guys perspective - and let me tell you? Jenn does a fabulous job of hopping inside a teenage boys mind! (I even called my husband and read some of this one to him, and he agreed that he could see himself as a teen thinking these things.) And I have to say - she does an excellent job of winning the readers back after the horrible thing she did to us in TOFitS!Now, I do have to say - there isn't a major cliffhanger in the end. (Which I ADORE her for!) Although there is a major plot line - that I pretty much always knew was coming - that she leaves unresolved. I consider that a cliffhanger, but I thank her for giving me a few more months to live in hopeful suspense that she will have some mercy for this character. (But I'm certain she won't - as she's said multiple times, these books are real. And real isn't always pretty!)Do I recommend this one? YES!! But, it's incredibly important you start from the beginning of this series. Give these characters time to become real, to become friends. Give this story line a chance to take a place in your soul, it will grab hold and it will NOT let go.