Review: Great young adult story!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 25, 2013
None of the Regular Rules is a coming of age story about Sophie, who is getting ready to start her senior year of high school. Sophie and her friends find something in the glove box of her car - a car that used to belong to her deceased aunt Suzy. It seems to be a bucket list of things that Suzy wanted to accomplish. Sophie decides to tackle each of the things on the list, with the help of her friends, to fulfill her aunt's last wishes.This really is a great young adult contemporary story. Sophie feels that her life is boring and that she isn't going anywhere in life. She thinks that doing the crazy things on the list might add some excitement, and make her feel closer to her aunt. Things go well at first. She takes chances that she would never have done otherwise. The list starts taking over her life though, and Sophie and her friends start to grow apart. I liked her friends for the most part, but sometimes they got on my nerves. However, they had important issues that they were dealing with too.The love interest in this story is Sophie's neighbor, Johnny. They slowly become friends and he helps Sophie with some of the things on her list. He is such a sweet and likable guy, but unfortunately he has a girlfriend. Sophie really starts to fall for him, but refuses to let their relationship go past friendship - even though his relationship with his long-distance girlfriend is "complicated".This isn't exactly a lighthearted story - there are a lot of emotions involved. The book reminds you that everyone is dealing with something, and life isn't always happy-go-lucky all of the time. The premise of the story is really unique and interesting. This is a very plot-driven book, though I would have liked more romance involved. That's just me though - I say that about a lot of books. I'm a romance fanatic. I highly recommend this book to young adults, as well as not-quite-so-young adults like me!