Unconventional Lexi
Many reviews compare this book to Rainbow Rowell. There are similarities, yes, but personally, I like Rowell much, much better. This book just didn’t do it for me, didn’t hit that elusive note that makes readers open their eyes wide, say “Ahh!” and smile.
The protagonist Lexi is seventeen. Her divorced father owns a company that organizes book and comics conventions, and Lexi is her father’s unpaid assistant. She manages the conventions’ staff. Conventions are her life, and the novel is built around them. Lexi falls in love during a convention. She has a revelation (or five) about life and love during a convention. Her friends are all convention friends.
The story is a YA and is full of teenage angst, silliness, and self-doubts. I’m so far removed from that miserable age, and from the book’s intended audience, that all the heroine’s moping around left me unmoved. I wanted to shake her shoulders and yell at her: “What are you doing, idiot!”
Fortunately for Lexi, by the last convention of the season, she comes to her senses and accepts the love of a gorgeous and talented young author, but their young romance and their turbulent teenage problems, totally artificial, if you ask me, just didn’t cut it.
While the characters didn’t work for me, the writing was good, and the humor saved this story from being a total failure. Maybe it would’ve work better for someone a bit younger than myself.
