The Book of Luke by Jenny O'Connell

Emily has always been the girl who was "nice". She did nice things and said the right comments at the right time. She grew up in that sort of household - especially because her mom wrote novels about etiquette and related topics.

But then things happened to Emily that weren't very nice.

For instance, she had to move from Chicago to Boston half-way through her senior year of high school. She was a shoe-in for valedictorian, but once she transferred she wouldn't be able to do that at her new school. Her father, who wanted to move in the first place, ended up staying in Chicago. Emily's boyfriend decided to dump her the morning she was leaving.

Emily was tired of being the "nice" girl. When reunited with her old friends from freshman year, they decided to do something about guys being, well, guys.

Every year the senior class creates a class capsule. Emily decided she's making a guide for guys in the future on how to treat a girl they way they should. Tell them what the guys are doing wrong and what doesn't appeal to girls.

Before they were putting it in the capsule, though, Emily's friends Josie and Lucy wanted to test out the guides to make sure they work. Who better than the school's bad-boy, cocky senior Luke to try it out on? And only Emily could do it since she hasn't been at that high school for 2 1/2 years.

But when Emily starts to really fall for Luke and not just using him for the guide, she finds herself in a huge mess. Josie still liked Luke and wanted to get together with him after the experiment, so Emily couldn't tell her about her newly developed feelings.

And Emily couldn't tell Luke because he would get angry.

When everything gets out in the open, though, Emily finds that she really isn't the nice girl anymore. While she thought that she would be happy, it had the opposite effect.

Will Emily be able to fix all of her broken relationships, or will she finally be known as the mean girl? Read The Book of Luke by Jenny O'Connell to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This is a typical book about high school drama and revenge. Overall, it was a good story, but I found myself very frustrated at Emily. She seemed almost selfish and she never really talked about her problems but wanted to know everyone elses, which didn't seem fair.

I really liked Luke. He was a shy, awkward 8th/9th grader when Emily knew him before, but when she came back he was gorgeous, athletic, and everyone bowed at his feet.

He didn't necessarily ask for it, but he wasn't telling everyone to stop either - when you are an awkward person who becomes popular it's a kick that I can understand why he might have acted like that.

For Emily, lies never came easy but reading this novel the reader would never know that. She lied constantly and after awhile it came back to bite her - hard. In the end, she realized that she needed to be HERSELF not someone that her family or friends wanted her to be.

This was an alright book. For any teen girl who has been scorned by a male, they would definitely love it. I found it a little juvenile in some places and was almost glad to finish it, but I think it could appeal to other, younger readers.