Review: Girl Saves Boy - Steph Bowe

Where I got it: ARC from Princess Bookie's Around the World Tours
Rating: 4 stars 
Cover Rating: 4 stars (It's a very weird picture, but the lights are all sparklely so that's cool.)
Genre: Young Adult 

Publication Date: August 30, 2010

Publisher: The Text Publishing Company

Page Count: 280 p.

Jewel just moved back in with her mother since her grandparents both died. When she goes to the park for a walk, she sees a boy floating in the same lake that claimed her brother's life 10 years before. She dashes into the lake and drags the boy out, gives him CPR and calls an ambulance. Sacha is the boy who was in the lake. Sacha and Jewel find themselves inexplicably drawn together ever since that moment they met. One of Sacha's best friends, True, was even Jewel's friend when she used to live here. There are many small acts of fate that keep bringing them closer and closer to each other, and closer and closer to the truths about life.

This was a fantastic novel. I love all the little characters and Little Al's caravan family. Everyone was so well portrayed. I love that they eat Tim-Tams, I had recently discovered these, and they are delicious. It was interesting reading something in English, but having there be a lot of difference in the way they speak (dodn't: for don't and leant: for leaned). The only thing that kind of bugged me was that Jewel's and Sacha's voices (narration) were very similar and sometimes you couldn't be sure who was narrating at that point in time. Luckily all you had to do was look to the top of the page and you would see either "Sacha" or "Jewel" printed there, but it would have been nice to have a little more distinction between their two voices even if they are very similar. I loved all the little list that Sacha made of random things, like his favorite smells. This book addressed a lot of issue and it did it very well. It was weird to have a narrators so surround by death and grief and loss, but have them still be functioning, it was a nice change. Jewel and Sacha were very memorable characters and I really liked how the story left off. If the story had gone on longer it would have been too depressing and blah. I wish this book was out in America already, so that I could buy a copy for myself and my library. I really think everyone should read this if they get and opportunity to do so. I very much look forward to seeing if Steph has anything else up her sleeve, novel-wise.

First Line:
"There was a boy in the lake."

Favorite Line:
"We scooped up bed sheets and I took the diningtable chairs into the living room and made a tent that encompassed the couch and was long enough to sleep under and wide enough for the both of us."  

Can I just mention how much I adore her author photo too.
It's so cute:)