Review - Swoon At Your Own Risk by Sydney Salter

Swoon At Your Own Risk by Sydney Salter


Released: April 2010
Publisher: Graphia
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 368
Source: Around the World Tours


Rating: ♥♥♥

It’s the summer before senior year and Polly Martin has sworn off boys. Who needs the hurt and confusion? Five recent breakups have left her with an unnatural knowledge of NASCAR, the ultimate hiker’s outfit, a student council position, the sixth highest score on the Donkey Kong machine at the mall, and a summer job at Wild Waves with ex #2 Sawyer Holmes.


Success seems a sure thing when Polly’s grandmother, the syndicated advice columnist, Miss Swoon, moves in for the summer. Polly almost doesn’t mind sharing a room with her little sister, Grace. Think of all the great advice she’ll get!


Everything is going according to plan except... Miss Swoon turns out to be a man-crazy septuagenarian! And then there’s Xander Cooper. If only he wouldn’t keep showing up at Wild Waves with his adorable cousins every afternoon — and what is he writing in that little notebook?


No advice column in the world can prepare Polly for the lessons she learns when she goes on a group camping trip (with three too many ex-boyfriends). Polly is forced to see people for who they are — a blend of good and bad qualities that can’t be reduced to a list or a snappy answer in a Miss Swoon column.

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I'm not even for sure how to start this review. I liked this book, but it had its flaws. I think it should have possibly went through another round of edits before being released. One minute I would find myself completely engrossed and the next minute, I'd be struggling to get to the next chapter.

While slightly annoying at times, Polly was overall a character I grew to love. Sometimes she would crack me up and other times I just shook my head. She's a girl who really doesn't have her own path. She only does things that all her current boyfriends like. I hate seeing girls that can't even tell you what they like to do when suddenly they don't have a boyfriend. But I was gung ho that the book was mainly focused on her trying to change over the course of the summer.

The book sometimes got confusing because Polly sure did like the boys and this ex and that ex seemed to run together a bit when discussing them. But the family dynamics in the book were pretty hilarious. I loved seeing her mom, sister, and grandmother all in a room together. They all bounced off each other nicely. Xander was a good mix of boys to throw into Polly's life. He was probably my favorite because he didn't try to push Polly in a direction she never wanted to go in the first place. I also really liked reading the advice from Miss Swoon, the blog posts, and the poetry so to say. I just wished all three weren't sometimes jammed in at the end of each chapter. It was kind of distracting, but overall it was a pretty good read. I'd recommend it to people who like a more up beat and chick lit type of read.

♥amber