Me and Mr J by Rachel McIntyre

Me and Mr J (2015) (Electric Monkey, Egmont)
Rachel McIntyre
Grade: B++
Genre: young adult
Source: own

TBR RBC 2015: A book on Egmont's frontlist 

Lara Titliss (Worst. Surname. Ever.) has recently found salvation in her new diary – an unexpected and unwanted gift from her grandmother. It is in these pages that Lara documents the bullying and torment she suffers from her peers as a result of being a tall, gangly red-head and the least popular girl at school, yet also her discovery of her soulmate. One problem – he’s her teacher. Mr Jagger is the best thing that has ever happened to her school. All the girls in Lara’s class unashamedly throw themselves at him, but she’s the one who he praises in class and asks for help with a special project. He’s the first person who takes her seriously and takes the time to listen to her problems; it’s no wonder that she falls helplessly over heels in love with him. Surely he can’t love her back …

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Sweethearts (2008) (Little, Brown)
Sara Zarr
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult
Source: own

General RBC 2015: A classic YA novel 

Once upon a time, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were best friends. Social outcasts at school, they came to depend on each other in a way that only they understood. When one day Cameron doesn’t turn up for school and Jennifer is told that he’s dead, her world is turned upside down. Now in high school, Jennifer Harris is no more. ‘Jenna’ has a happy family after her mum remarried, a close-knit group of friends and a doting boyfriend of three months. When Cameron returns out of the blue, Jenna’s life is thrown out-of-sync – again. As their relationship clicks back into place as if picking up where they left off, they are both forced to remember their shared history and Jenna’s new life suddenly hangs in the balance …

Here's Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane

Here's Looking at You (2013) (Avon)
Mhairi McFarlane
Grade: C+
Genre: chick lit
Source: own

Romance RBC 2014: A chick lit book 

Aureliana ‘Anna’ Alessi is pretty content with the way her life turned out. A thirty-something history expert and lecturer, she’s looking for Mr Right via online dating, which has yielded some interesting but non-contending results. A somewhat chubby kid at school, Anna was the source of the popular kids’ teasing and bullying – a depressing period of her life which she’s glad to have moved on from and mostly forgotten.

When Anna is asked to help put together an exhibition at the British Museum, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. That is, until, she discovers that also working on the project is James Fraser, architect of her greatest humiliation at school. Thankfully, James shows no inkling of recognising Anna from their schooldays and she’s happy to keep it that way. As they get closer both personally and professionally, Anna starts to find her opinion of James changing … People can change – Anna herself is a testament to that – so why does she feel like she’s making a mistake in trusting him?