Love & Leftovers by Sarah Tregay

Genre: Young Adult-Romance/Poetry
Source: Finished Copy from Library
Series: No, Standalone
Buy It: The Book Depository, The Dolphin Bookshop (Shop Indie!)
Challenge: Free Reads, 2012 Contemporary Challenge
First Line: "My mother doesn't understand that this is a summer house (meant to be lived in only during the summer)."

My wish is to fall cranium over Converse in dizzy daydream-worthy love.

(If only it were that easy.

Marcie has been dragged away from home for the summer--from Idaho to a family summerhouse in New Hampshire. She's left behind her friends, a group of freaks and geeks called the Leftovers, including her emo-rocker boyfriend, and her father.

By the time Labor Day rolls around, Marcie suspects this "summer vacation" has become permanent. She has to start at a new school, and there she leaves behind her Leftover status when a cute boy brings her breakfast and a new romance heats up. But understanding love, especially when you've watched your parents' affections end, is elusive. What does it feel like, really? Can you even know it until you've lost it?

"Love & Leftovers" is a beautifully written story of one girl's journey navigating family, friends, and love, and a compelling and sexy read that teens will gobble up whole.

     Love & Leftovers by Sarah Tregay is written in verse.  I love verse.  I started reading Love & Leftovers one night and stayed up till 1:30 AM just to finish!  That's probably the latest I've stayed up to read (normally I can't read when I'm tired).  I really enjoyed the writing in Love and Leftovers but, wasn't in love with the story.  I really loved some of the themes in the story, too.  
     I definitely saw this book as unique.  I've never heard a story quite like this one.  It had so many different elements and aspects of the story intertwined with each other.  Marcie, Linus, her mom, her dad, and so many characters were having different issues throughout the book and I really liked how Sarah Tregay was able to have them all mixed into one book.  I also thought that some of the poetry was beautiful.  I loved Sarah's way of expressing all of the character's feelings in the book.  I also liked that Marcie was writing in a notebook and not just telling a story.  It made the story feel much more real.
     I was really enjoying the beginning of Love and Leftovers.  Unfortunately, once the book was about half way through it was losing its luster.  I was just not as wowed as I was when I was in the beginning.  I thought that the story actually went in too many directions and was also quite predictable.  Luckily,  I really liked how realistic the ending was.  I thought that the story definitely wrapped up nicely. 
     I had mixed feelings about the characters in Love & Leftovers.  At times, Marcie seemed whiney but, at other times she was much more relatable and realistic.  Overall, I liked her character I just thought that she complained a lot.  I also didn't like some of the decisions she made throughout the book but, I can accept this because characters should be flawed!  So, this was actually a good thing!  I liked both of the love interests in the story and thought they were sweet and flawed in their own way.  Linus was definitely better for Marcie in the end, though (in my opinion) .
     Overall, I enjoyed Love & Leftovers but, it was a bit of a letdown.  I feel like I had really high expectations for the book and that's why it wasn't that amazing for me.  I did really enjoy the beginning and the end but, the middle just wasn't all that great for me.  Weird, right?  The writing was great, though.  The story was also unique so, Love & Leftovers is worth reading.  It shouldn't take that long and you might really like it!


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