Jesse's Girl

Author: Miranda Kenneally

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Year Published: 2015

Page: 291

Every year, Maya Henry's school, Hundred Oaks, has this Career Shadow Day, where every senior has to "shadow" a professional for a day as the way to help them to figure out what kind of career they want in the future. Maya wants to be a musician, and she had already expected to work in the electronic section at Walmart--because Career Shadow Day is usually that lame. So, she was very surprised when she was given task to shadow a famous teen country singer, Jesse Scott, and an opportunity to meet him on his concert. First, she hadn't expected that her headmaster would be that serious about her dream. Second, he also happens to be Jesse's uncle. Third, she has never liked country; she's more into Queen and other 80's rock bands.

At the beginning, Jesse was a jerk toward Maya as he thought Maya was one of his groupies. But on that one day Career Shadow Day, when Maya and Jesse had to spend a day together to get Maya know how the life of musician is like, everything changed. Jesse was interested in knowing more about Maya and her passion in music and Maya found out more about the real Jesse that most of people don't know: his insecurity and his love to his family. Jesse understood Maya's dream and pushed her to be brave to go solo.

Will Maya be able to reach her dream? And will there be a chance for love to grow between Maya and Jesse?

So.

This is the 5th Hundred Oaks book I've read so far (I haven't read Breathe, Annie, Breathe, the 5th book in the series) and honestly, this one is not among the best. I still pick Racing Savannah, Stealing Parker, and Catching Jordan for that list. The message is actually great, about the courage to reach our dreams, no matter how many obstacles you find, but I find both the main characters, Maya and Jesse, are too good to be true and not compelling to me:

First, Maya. She is a high school girl who plays guitar, gothic, rides a motorcycle, knows many things about car, and also can drive sport car. Like... uh really?

Second, Jesse. Handsome, rich, talented, good personality but having this issue with trust since he has been famous since very young age, etc... in short, the prince charming kind of guy.

Although I really like what Miranda did to the audition scene and the closing of the story, which in my opinion very realistic, first half of the book had made me rolling my eyes again and again.  Seriously, Jesse and Maya don't have my heart here. The characters who helped the story and made me kept reading were--of course!--Jordan and Sam. I love their interaction here: the fight, the jealousy, and also their playfulness. Sam was very cute in most of his appearance in this book!

Although I'm kinda disappointed with the story--not with Sam and Jordan--I still want to read more of Miranda's writing (absolutely!). This book is still recommended to be collected by you, Jordan and Sam fans. You'll find more about them here.

I am so waiting for the 7th book.