What My Mother Doesn’t Know

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya SonesWhat My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Simon Pulse, 259 pages

My name is Sophie.
This book is about me.
It tells the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love, too.

It’s not that I’m boy crazy.
It’s just that even though I’m almost fifteen
it’s like my mind and my body and my heart
just don’t seem to be able to agree on anything.

I heard about What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones from Angie, but since she wrote about it for Retro Friday, I didn’t think it would be easily available here. Imagine my surprise when I spotted this during one of my book hunts. I shouldn’t have bought much then, but I’m easily swayed.

What does Sophie’s mother doesn’t know? A lot, actually, especially the ones about her love life. Sophie is in high school and while she says she’s not boy-crazy, she can’t stop thinking about kissable lips or obsessing about her boyfriend Dylan. She also can’t stop thinking about her online guy friend Chaz. And while we’re at it, she also can’t stop wondering about awkward, unpopular boy Murphy. There’s a lot that Sophie’s mother doesn’t know, and Sonya Sones regales these things to us in this wonderful, easy-to-read novel in verse.

I’m really starting to like reading novels in verse. This is my third verse novel for the year, and they make for excellent in-between book. I read this in less than two hours, and it gave my mind an easy break after all the serious books I’ve been reading. Sophie is a good narrator, and I immediately warmed up to her. She’s popular but she’s nice, and not completely selfish. I liked her relationships with her friends and her family, especially her relationship with her mom, which I could kind of relate with. It wouldn’t be entitled this without the mother aspect, right? While it’s not as strong and dramatic as the mother aspect in A Girl Named Mister, I think it still packs a punch. I especially like this passage:

ELEVEN P.M.

There’s this
real corny thing
that Channel 5 does every night
after the late movie,
just before the news comes on.

They flash this sign on the screen
that says:
“It’s eleven p.m.
Do you know where
your children are?”

And just now,
when it came on,
I heard this little tap tap tap on the wall
coming from my mother’s bedroom
and I tapped right back.

What My Mother Doesn’t Know is sweet and charming. Despite the less words, it was still very eloquent. Don’t be fooled by how the blurb makes the books so simple or shallow. Sonya Sones hit the nail on the head in portraying a teenage girl’s preoccupations and experiences in first (second and third) loves. This is one of comfort reads that’s quick, easy and just right. If Sonya Sones’ work are all as comforting as this, then I’m definitely getting her other books. :)

Rating: [rating=4]

2011 Challenge Status:
Required Reading – July

My copy: paperback from Fully Booked

Cover and blurb: Goodreads

Other reviews:
Angieville
Book Harbinger

Required Reading: July

Everyone’s been saying this now, but of course I will say this again: look, it’s July. It’s the third quarter, it’s the second half of the year. Where is time going?

Anyway now, as opposed to my Required Reading for May challenge, June wasn’t so good. I’m not exactly sure what happened, and to think scaling down to two books will help me finish reading all in a month. But nooo, I ended up reading other things, so Noli Me Tangere and The Book Thief remained just…started. Not exactly untouched. I started on them, but somewhere along the way, I stopped.

I did read many good books this month…so it’s not waste month, of course. I guess this goes to show how I feel about books with more than 500 pages. Heh.

So let’s start anew. Hello again, July!

Required Reading: July

I was consulting my Required Reading list for July that I kept in my planner and saw that there was no set theme again. I was lining up my books again and I realized that if I had a fantasy month, then I should have a contemporary month, right?Celebrate realistic YA with The Contemps!

So here we go:

  1. The God Box by Alex Sanchez
  2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
  3. Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
  4. What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
  5. Dark Blue by Melody Carlson

Oh gasp, look — five books? Well I figured this should be easier now, especially since I love contemporary fiction, and one of the books is a book in verse (I’m starting to like them very much now!). I am going to be on night shift for this month, too, so I’m hoping that that would help me read more whenever I find free time.

Or I could just keep on trying, you know. :)

If you’re interested in participating in this challenge, here’s a rule recap:

  • The books should be read within the specified month
  • These books should be in my TBR and not yet to be acquired
  • These books cannot be used for any other reading challenges I am participating in.

Leave a comment so I can put you on the round up! Happy July everyone! :)

Required Reading: July round up!

In My Mailbox (14): Mother’s Day and a Long Hiatus

Before anything else!

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms out there! :)

Especially to mine:

<3Thank you for getting me all those books when I was a kid even if you’re not too fond of reading, and I know sometimes you think I read too much. :D  Thank you for reading all the things I wrote despite that fact. :) I love you!

* * *

It’s been a long time since I last did an In My Mailbox post. Other than laziness and trying to resist buying books, I went on a book-buying fast during the Lenten season. I could not buy books for myself, but I can buy them as gifts, or receive them as gifts since my birthday falls within Lent. It’s all good, and I ended up using the usual book money for other equally important things, like clothes.

But as soon as Easter morning came, I went to Book Depository and ordered books. :) It felt nice, to celebrate victory in that way. The books aren’t here yet, though, so that will be for another posts.

The books I bought in recent bookstore trips are a different matter. And so after a long hiatus, here’s my 14th In My Mailbox. In My Mailbox is a weekly book meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren, where bloggers post about what books received that week, be it via  mailbox, library or store.

In My Mailbox (14)

Continue Reading →