Pre- Squee! Jesse’s Girl by Miranda Kenneally

Thank you to The Book Swarm and Bewitched Bookworms for letting me join in on their awesome feature – the Pre-Squee!

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Jesse’s Girl (Hundred Oaks) by Miranda Kenneally
Release Date: July 7th, 2015
Sourcebooks FireGoodreads

Practice Makes Perfect.

Everyone at Hundred Oaks High knows that career mentoring day is a joke. So when Maya Henry said she wanted to be a rock star, she never imagined she’d get to shadow *the* Jesse Scott, Nashville’s teen idol.

But spending the day with Jesse is far from a dream come true. He’s as gorgeous as his music, but seeing all that he’s accomplished is just a reminder of everything Maya’s lost: her trust, her boyfriend, their band, and any chance to play the music she craves. Not to mention that Jesse’s pushy and opinionated. He made it on his own, and he thinks Maya’s playing back up to other people’s dreams. Does she have what it takes to follow her heart—and go solo?

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I don’t like to talk about or review books so far in advance but this book made me so damn happy that I had to pre-squee and encourage you all to get your pre-order in!

I read this book for the sole reason that in the 80’s I was actually dating a guy named Jesse when this song first came out. lol

Jesse’s Girl is the kind of book that reminds me of why I love contemporary YA. Kenneally once again captures all the feelings of that age with honesty and compassion.

Maya is an incredible YA heroine that we don’t get to see very often, especially in these “date a rock star” fantasy tales. She meets a boy – a hot boy – a hot rocker boy – but she just doesn’t really care about all that surface stuff. This isn’t your typical plain, shy girl falls in love with a fantasy trope.

Maya is quirky, talented, ambitious and is willing to put in the work to become a major musical talent. She hopes to learn about the business from Jesse but she isn’t swayed by his good looks or what knowing him can do for her but she does take advantage of opportunities when offered. I loved that girl so much!

Once they become friends, and she’s thrust into the spotlight, I expected the usual drama of Maya being overwhelmed by the negative press and rumors or Jesse being a spoiled, brooding jerk but it never happened.

Both Jesse and Maya and genuinely good people. Jesse does have trust issues but watching him let Maya in as she restores his love of music was so sweet and smile inducing.

There are also really wonderful (extended) cameos with Sam, Jordan and the Henry family – from Catching Jordan, plus the introduction of several responsible, caring adults from Jesse's world. It was nice to see something other than the usual money grubbing producers and publicists.

Jesse’s Girl is such a sex positive, girl positive, relationship (both romantic and family) positive book that I can’t recommend it highly enough to BOTH boys and girls.

Oh – and there are ALL the 80’s song and movie (Ferris Bueller) references that make this book even more fun to read!

Definitely one of my favorites of 2015 so far.