Book Review: Swoon at Your Own Risk

Swoon at Your Own Risk by Sydney Salter
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: April 5, 2010
Publisher: Graphia
Pages: 360
Received From: 1 ARC Tours

Summary: You’d think Polly Martin would have all the answers when it comes to love—after all, her grandmother is the famous syndicated advice columnist Miss Swoon. But after a junior year full of dating disasters, Polly has sworn off boys. This summer, she’s going to focus on herself for once. So Polly is happy when she finds out Grandma is moving in—think of all the great advice she’ll get. But Miss Swoon turns out to be a man-crazy sexagenarian! How can Polly stop herself from falling for Xander Cooper, the suddenly-hot skateboarder who keeps showing up while she’s working at Wild Waves water park, when Grandma is picking up guys at the bookstore and flirting with the dishwasher repairman? No advice column can prepare Polly for what happens when she goes on a group camping trip with three too many ex-boyfriends and the tempting Xander. Polly is forced to face her feelings and figure out if she can be in love—and still be herself.

My Review: Swoon At Your Own Risk was a fun, well-written novel with a few exceptions. I enjoyed the storyline but I have mixed feelings about Polly, at first she came off as a sarcastic, selfish and boy crazy person. She always needed a guy in her life. No matter how many times she tried to stay away from them, she failed miserably. I didn't really get to know Polly until the middle of the book. Her defense mechanism was her sense of humor, it literally was an emotional shield. Even her best friend, Jane was left in the dark about Polly's personal life. I truly felt sorry for her. Polly was a horrible friend, she only cared about her boy issues instead of caring about Jane. Ugh. I just didn't understand why guys, or should I say boys, were so important in her life until later on.

As I read on, Polly started realizing her faults and slowly grew as a person. I understood that some of her emotional issues stemmed from her family. At that point I actually started feeling sorry for her. However, I think once Xander, a used to be geek turned into hottie, became present in her life she slowly started changing. I really liked Xander's personality, he was such a deep thinker and very kind-hearted. I just wanted to shake Polly and tell her, "Hello! Nice guy alert!" Overall, I enjoyed this novel, it was really cute and would make a great Summer read. I think the story was appealing and the ending left me feeling warm inside. My favorite part would have to be Xander's little poems at the end of the chapters, they were like little treats. Okay fine so, I guess I did swoon over Xander the whole time!

My Rating:
Author's Info:
Sydney Salter lives in Utah with her husband, two daughters, two cats, two dogs, and two tortoises. She loves reading, writing, traveling, cooking, but not cleaning the kitchen, and chocolate.

For more info on Sydney, please visit her site(s):
Website: http://www.sydneysalter.com/
Blog: http://mybignose.blogspot.com/
Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2870427

Other Books By Sydney:
My Big Nose & Other Natural Disasters
Jungle Crossing