Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay

Title: Love and Leftovers
Author: Sarah Tregay
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publishing Date: December 27th 2011
Pages: 451
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance in Verse
Series: Stand Alone
Source: Hardcover

Goodreads Summary:


My wish
is to fall
cranium over Converse
in dizzy, daydream-worthy
love.
(If only it were that easy.)


When her parents split, Marcie is dragged from Idaho to a family summerhouse in New Hampshire. She leaves behind her friends, a group of freaks and geeks called the Leftovers, including her emo-rocker boyfriend, and her father. By the time Labor Day rolls around, Marcie suspects this "vacation" has become permanent. She starts at a new school where a cute boy brings her breakfast and a new romance heats up.




But understanding love, especially when you've watched your parents' affections end, is elusive. What does it feel like, really? Can you even know it until you've lost it?


Review:


The synopsis of this story grabbed me when I first read about it. I am not used to reading in verse, so I was not sure what I would think. I absolutely adored this book.


The story is about a girl and two boys to choose from. The boy that has been in her life for a while, who feels right, the one she left behind and the boy who she meets, she knows is wrong, the one she can’t help but be drawn to. This is a story about a girl who feels she lost her dad when he left them for a man and who lost her mother to depression when he dad left them. This is a story about a girl who makes all the wrong decisions but ends up right in the end.


The main character of this story, Marcie, was a little hard for me to get close too at the beginning. I felt she was a bit of whiner, but the more the story went on, the more I felt for her. I think this has a lot to do with the writing style of verse. It took a while to really see what she was feeling. Somewhere along the line, I started to fall for her and her messed up life. In the end she is just plain loveable. I really felt for Marcie throughout the book, some for the issues she couldn’t fix, like her mother’s depression and some for the issues she causes, like kissing a boy that was not her boyfriend.


The story was cute. Girl has boy, girl leaves (not of her choice) boy, girl misses boy, girl meets another boy, girl likes new boy, girl loses new boy (not by her choice again, girl gets first boy back, girl loses first boy again (this time by her own actions) will girl end up with either boy? Add in girl has depressed mom and feels obligated to take care of her, girl is mad at dad for leaving their family, girl realizes she cannot control either. 


The book is about Marcie, and her problems, her choices, her consequences, and finally her acceptances. She is on a journey to understand the heart. I really enjoyed this book and found it hard to put it down. Because of the verse style writing, it was a very fast read and I closed the book in the end with tears in my eyes and very wide smile.


Rating: