Cassie's Crush by Fiona Foden

Cassie's Crush by Fiona Foden
Buy Cassie's Crush by Fiona Foden at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: Bland contemporary which fails to live up to the potential of Foden's wonderful first book.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Maybe
Pages: 208	Date: July 2012
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781407120874
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Cassie falls head over heels for the new boy at school from the first moment she sets eyes on him. The only problem is, her crush makes her so nervous she can barely even pluck up the courage to say hello, let alone ask him out. With a bit of help from her friends, can she convince Ollie she's the girl for him?

I read, and absolutely loved, Fiona Foden's debut novel for teens Life, Death and Gold Leather Trousers. It's possible that the excellence of that book had me expecting a bit too much from this one, because I wasn't as impressed by Cassie's Crush. Cassie's not a particularly interesting or sympathetic heroine and the supporting cast struggle to make much of an impression. It's also got a fairly predictable plot with too many clichéd situations, right from the start in which Cassie is mortified because she thinks one of her boobs is bigger than the other.

It also suffers a bit from the lack of anything much going on outside the romance and Cassie's rivalry with Amber Leech, who's also interested in Ollie and is rather more experienced when it comes to boys. (Again, I was comparing Amber rather unfavourably to Sophie Skelling of Life, Death and Gold Leather Trousers, who seemed to be a much more interesting love rival.) The other main subplot features an 18-year-old girl, Ray, who's started hanging around with Cassie's 16-year-old brother Ned – could she really be interested in a younger boy who's never been much of a hit with the ladies. I actually liked Ray, who's probably the most interesting character in the book, but she doesn't appear enough to make that much of an impression.

It's a pleasant enough read if you're looking for a light contemporary teen book but there's so many wonderful ones out there that it's really hard to particularly recommend this one.

One of those wonderful contemporary reads is Foden's own Life, Death and Gold Leather Trousers which I'm more than happy to recommend. A couple of recent brilliant light contemporary novels for teens are My Family and Other Freaks by Carol Midgley and What Boys Really Want by Pete Hautman.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Cassie's Crush by Fiona Foden at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Cassie's Crush by Fiona Foden at Amazon.com.

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