Love and Other Four-Letter Words

I bought this book maybe 2 months ago and I've read it maybe 20 times! This book is never boring. I loved it! Sammie is a character I completely understand with her love of music, overbearing best friend, loveable dog-loving new friend, and innocent crushes. Sammie Davis is moved out of small town America to NYC with her mother, who she doesn't understand, due to her parents' trial separation. Sammie learns to deal with life in the big city, meeting new people, running the household, new crushes, and learning to back away from an abusive friend. Sammie faces adult problems (such as having food in the house and taking care of her mother who continues to have a sort of nervous breakdown) and teen problems (such as dealing with a friend who takes too much and getting a crush to notice her). She is a strong willed, believeable character. A must read!

I was in a bookstore with my friend when we noticed this book on the shelf. It caught my eye, its design, and I had seen it somewhere in a magazine. My friend and I read the insert to see what it was about. All we could say was "This looks really good!" Since I was the only one with money, I bought it. When I brought the book home, I finished it in one day. I told everybody to leave me alone, especially my mom because she was always bugging me about how I don't read enough, and I was reading now, so she better leave me alone. The charachter, Sammie, is so realistic. She feels the same things that any girl would feel. Her best friend is a boymagnet, like my BFF, and it can get pretty annoying sometimes. Her parents are going thru a trial seperation, and she feels like all the weight of her mother's problems is being piled on top of her, since she moved away from her old home and is now living with her while her dad goes to California. I'm only 13 years old, but I am a fan of love stories, and it has a little bit of that also, but not so much it's like the only thing in the book, just enough to add a little spice. The situations in the book are very true to life of and average girl. This book makes you feel, or at least made me feel, that I'm not the only one who feels like this, and I'm not alone with my feelings about how my problems or my life isn't turning out the way it should. It's not a touchy feely book, if that's what I make it sound like. It just tells what Sammie thinks about everything that's happening around her. This book is written beautifully, with great description and quirkiness. On a scale of one to five, Love and Other Four Letter words deserves a 6.

I enjoyed reading this book because i felt that i could relate to the main character, sammie. This book doesn't try to trivialize teens' problems or make us look stupid. It's honest and funny, and i think everyone should give it a try, especially if you like other good teen fiction from authors like judy blume and phylis renolds naylor.

Her book is great. It's real in a way a lot of books are. If you read the editortial thing, and the other reviews, then you probably already know what it's about. But still. Sammie is a wonderfully ... well... REAL character, and the people she deals with in her book are a lot like people I deal with way out in the boondocks of the Midwest where I live. I think she's an extremely talented writer and I'm sitting on pins (isn't that the FUNNIEST thing to say?) waiting for her next book...

I'm actually an 18 yr. old reader from Chagrin Falls, OH, but they didnt hav 18 as a choice. If anyone else figured out how to do that, well, lets just say i'm extremely exhausted and didnt want to take the time to figure it out ;-) Okay, here goes my review (for the 3rd time...my other reviews never got posted!)There I was walking around the Borders bookstore of Solon Ohio, looking for the little girl I had just lost (I'm a nanny.) As I was heading towards the childrens section, a book cover caught my eye in the young adult area. Instead of continuing my search for Lissy (the little girl I mentioned) I stopped to take a look at this book. (No, i'm really not a bad nanny, i just figured she had to be around the store somewhere...there isnt a high crime rate in Solon, so I figured nothing bad could have happened.) Okay back to my review! I picked up the book an admired the bright green and pink cover with a daisy printed inside a guitar case. I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but in this case...i did. I decided to grab a cup of ginseng peppermint tea (they were out of cinnamon apple) an take this quiet opportunity to read. As soon as I opened the cover i was intrigued. You see, my parents recently got divorced so i moved to Ithaca, NY for the summer to live with my sister. This book mentioned Ithaca so many times that I was constantly thinking to myself, "Oh, i was there," or, "Oh my goodness, I went swimming in Buttermilk Falls too." It was just so ironic for me to be picking up this book just because I liked the cover and then discovering what it was about! I mean you have this girl, Sammie, who lived in Ithaca all her life and then had to move because her parents were separating. Sound familiar??? It sure did to me! At this point i was having a hard time with everything that was going on with my parents that this book was a god-send to me. It helped to read that it was normal to be going through all this and to have these feelings. Carolyn Mackler is a wonderful author and a wonderful person. Her book taught me how to be stronger. Sammie had to fight for her self worth so often that I realized I never was, and that I needed too. If you haven't read Carolyn's book yet, than you better hurry up and get going. It'll be the best thing you have ever done. Thankyou Carolyn for making me a better person and for instilling the idea in my head that I am worth something. And all my parents' fighting couldnt change that! Love Erin