Review: Flat-Out Love

When I decided to do the Cupid Hop- I did not realize how hard it would be to find a book with either heart, love or sweet in the title.  Or at least find one that I had not already reviewed.  So I searched far and wide.  After a few hours I came across a self-published book with Love it.  I downloaded it for $0.99 and seat down to read it.  I was not expecting to have so many emotions- there is a scene were I cried and cried, upset about the injustices of the world.  Then I was furious at Julie for a good three chapters but ultimately it will all work out.

Author: Jessica Park

Format: e-book

Print Length: 389 pages

Publisher: Self- Published

Published: April 11, 2011 

Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance.

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.

When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side ... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well ... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

Flat-Out Love comes complete with emails, Facebook status updates, and instant messages. 

My Thoughts

A love story filled with heart-break. When reading Flat-Out Love, you will probably laugh a little, cry a lot but the ending will leave you in a happy place. 

Julie is the typical college-bound freshmen in a strange city. Her momma’s college roomie comes to her rescue- via her son Matt. Julie lives with them for her freshman year. During this time, she notices some strange things but still she comes to love this family. She develops very strong feelings for Finn, the son she never actually met- they talk via the internet. Then she discovers the family secret, and realizes how fragile her love for them is. 

There were not plot twist for me- I figured out what was happening in chapter three. This usually makes me put down the book but for some reason I kept going. I felt horrible for Matt, the entire book. I thought that Julie was being silly for having feelings for Finn, when hello a hottie from MIT was sleeping in the same house. I mean with their internet interaction I can understand it but I was still cheering Matt/Julie on the whole book. Hopefully, silently begging for them to get together. Their banter and easy relationship reminded me of all the great relationships out there. I just knew they would be perfect for each other. Matt had so much responsibility though, that I am not sure that he could have handled Julie falling for him instead of Finn. 

My Rating 3 stars out of 5 stars

Favorite Quote If I get into the wrong car and get myself murdered and dumped in an alley. I want you to know how much I love you. And don’t look in the third drawer of my desk.

Other Characters

Erin- Matt and Celeste momma, also happens to be great friends with Julie’s momma 
Dana- girl Julie meets a college 
Celeste- quirky, 13 year-old:  has some issues that needs resolving

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