Take Me There by Susane Colasanti

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pub. Date: May 2008
Age Range: Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: hardcover
Source: borrowed

In one short week . . . three lives change.

Rhiannon is devastated after the breakup with her boyfriend and wants him back. Nicole's ex is still in the picture, but she can't help having a new crush. James and Rhiannon are just friends, though he may try to take it to the next level. Will their desire to take a mean girl down a notch bring these three friends what they want . . . and more?

Set during one life-altering week and told in three realistic perspectives, this engaging, witty novel by the author of When It Happens shows the ups and downs of love, friendship-and karma.

My friend Debbie and I discovered Susane on wandering around Amazon.com and I was so glad we did. I like her writing style, it's nice and everything feels close to real life. I have this goofy feeling whenever I pick Take Me There up. It was such a sweet one. The cover, the story, even the acknowledgements will put a smile on your face.

More or less you'll find yourself (and maybe your friends too) in this book. Every characters seem familiar. There's Rhianon, heartbroken and hopeless after a sudden break up. There's Nicole, confused and hurt inside. There's James, sweet and caring, having a secret crush on his best friend. Also: politic and charming Danny, mean Gloria, wicked smart Miguel, burnout senior Eliezer, self-confident and admirable Tatyanna, abusive and bad-tempered Brad, poor little Sheila, and many more.

I love how Susane wrote in three different points of views because it gave us a complete look of the eventful short week. Nicole's story was my favorite. While Rhianon's and James's were predictable, Nicole's was different. She was lost in her own feelings and suffered from memories of her Dad's abuse - which she could not tell anyone even her mother. The secret was spilt into three parts so it kept you curious and guessing like crazy, as well as slowly making perfect sense for the reason why Nicole chose to break up with Danny. Aside from Nicole, Gloria was someone else I would not forget. How she switched from mean to sweet/childish was very surprising.

Much as I like Take Me There, I think it could have been better. It was typical, and some parts turned out to be kind of boring (maybe because of the monologue?). I also didn't like the fact that James spent 100 bucks out of his savings for college on copying Gloria's note. I knew he wanted to get revenge for Rhianon, but still, a total waste.

Rating: 3/5

Did you know? The idea for Rhiannon and James to be best friends and then suddenly find themselves as more than that actually came from a dream. Susane woke up and knew it was meant to be the main plot of Take Me There.