Her and Me and You by Lauren Strasnick

Summary:
I met Fred first.

Fred: Hot. Enigmatic. Alex's first friend in her lonely new town. Maybe her first ... everything.

I met Adina the following Monday.

Adina: Fred's twin sister. Cold. Troubled. Trouble.

I kissed him. She pressed her mouth to my mouth.

People warn Alex to steer clear of the twins, but Alex is drawn to them. She wants to be part of their crazy world ... no matter the consequences. (from book jacket)

Review:
I liked Lauren Strasnick's debut Nothing Like You well enough, and I am always interested in the relationship between twins so I thought Her and Me and You would be a good choice. I enjoyed the read, however the sparse writing style is hard for me to get into.

The novel starts out with Alex moving to Meadow Marsh with her mother after her father cheats with a much younger woman. Alex's mother takes to drinking, and when her best friend gets a new boyfriend, Alex starts to feel lonely. She turns to her new friends that she has made at school, Fred and Adina. Fred is nice to Alex but Adina is a mystery. Sometime she's nice to Adina and other times she spreads rumors about Alex behind her back. And it all seems to stem from one thing: she's jealous that Alex is taking her brother away from her.

So we have a really weird situation with the twins that's actually really interesting to watch. You can tell Adina has some problems but she acts pretty crazy most of the time. Fortunately, things get somewhat resolved, but I must say that the ending was very confusing for me and just kind of leaves off without saying too much.

I liked Her and Me and You, but I was never really engrossed in the story. The sparse and succinct writing works for this book, but for me I just don't like it that much. However, if you enjoyed Nothing Like You, you should definitely give Her and Me and You a try because the writing is very similar.

Rating: 7 out of 10.
FTC: borrowed from my library.

2010/Simon Pulse/171 pages.

Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick

When Holly loses her virginity to Paul, a guy she barely knows, she assumes their encounter is a one-night stand. After all, Paul is too popular to even be speaking to Holly... and he happens to have a long-term girlfriend, Saskia. But ever since Holly's mom died six months ago, Holly has been numb to the world, and she's getting desperate to feel something, anything - so when Paul keeps pursuing her, Holly relents. Paul's kisses are a welcome diversion... and it's nice to feel like the kind of girl a guy like Paul would choose.

But things aren't so simple with Saskia around. Paul's real girlfriend is willowy and perfect... and nothing like Holly. To make matters worse, she and Holly are becoming friends. Suddenly, the consequences of Holly's choices are all too real, and Holly stands to lose more than she ever realized she had. (Taken from inside flap)

I read Nothing Like You really quickly - in one night. The book was short and sweet, but it was almost too short. I don't say that about many books (usually the qualms I have are that the book is too long), but I think an extra hundred pages would have done wonders for Nothing Like You. Don't get me wrong, I really liked it and was able to read it fast, but for the sake of plot and character development, more content would have been better. I was first attracted to the book by its title (shallow, I know, but it's a really good one and fits the book perfectly) and then the interesting plot. A girl is helping a guy cheat on his girlfriend, and then becomes friends with the girlfriend? Intriguing...

So for the things I liked: the subplot with Holly's best friend Nils. He's a guy so there's all this tension and the reader wonders if anything has/will happen between them. I like Nils a lot, except his Casanova charactization. The way Holly described him, he had a new girlfriend every other week. It sounded a little ridiculous and unrealistic. I also really liked Saskia. She's seems like the stereotypical popular girl, but then Holly becomes friends with her and she's completely different. For so little stage time, she was a really cool character. Finally, I liked the ending. It wasn't the usual happily ever after ending, but it wasn't completely sad and hopeless, either. The author was able to reach a nice happy medium.

The things I didn't like: Paul. He was the biggest jerk and almost too much of a jerk because the whole time I was wondering what Holly was doing with him. I probably would have been wondering that regardless of his character, but it would have been more interesting for the story if he was genuinely a nice guy. Well, as nice as you can been when you're cheating on your girlfriend. Anyway, I was also a little iffy on Holly. She wasn't all bad but I hated how she would have a lot of mood swings. Obviously that was her personality but I found it kind of weird. So overall the book could have been taken in two different directions: it could be written short to appeal to less voracious readers or it could have been more in-depth and gone into detail with the characters. The author chose to make the book shorter, which isn't a bad thing. I still enjoyed Nothing Like You and recommend it to people who like quick reads.

7 out of 10.