Esta es una historia sencilla, facil de leer, divertida, sin muchas pretenciones ni mucho antagonismo, pero de esas que se quedan en tu mente aun días despues de que lo hayas terminado de leer.

Vuelve a cuando eras mas fácil de amar se convirtió en uno de mis mantras. ( )

This is a Disney Channel movie masquerading as a book! It's the squeaky clean version of "Amy and Roger's Epic Detour" with less mileage, no sex and alcohol, and with music I actually recognized—unlike Roger’s indie playlists, which my son had to assure me were real. Instead of southern California, there's the town of Haven, Utah, overrun with wholesome Mormon high schoolers that our main character, Joy, mocks despite being Mormon herself. In denial over her boyfriend Zan’s early departure to college, Joy wheedles gorgeous, chaste Noah into a road trip to Pitzer College to see Zan and . . . it all goes horribly wrong! On the way back, Joy has an epiphany of sorts in a Las Vegas lounge watching a Barry Manilow impersonator. Despite being a YA title, you could easily hand this to the 5th graders who read "Twilight.” “Back When You Were Easier to Love” is full of Mormon culture, characters and beliefs so, early on, when Joy advocates for gay rights and Zan drinks mocha lattes, I thought the book might be satirical. Wrong! It’s cloyingly earnest, sweetly humorous and even the angst feels fluffy. The cover is very deceiving—this doesn't take place in a library or a bookstore. Bummer. ( )

Esta es una historia sencilla, facil de leer, divertida, sin muchas pretenciones ni mucho antagonismo, pero de esas que se quedan en tu mente aun días despues de que lo hayas terminado de leer.

Vuelve a cuando eras mas fácil de amar se convirtió en uno de mis mantras. ( )

First off, let me apologize for not updating my blog regularly. I've been working almost 80 hours some weeks and just can't sacrifice the time. I'll try to be better. In the meantime, thanks for your patience.

Aahh, teenage love! Great, right?! Pretty torturous really. Especially if you're Joy. Her boyfriend, Zan abandoned her. To make matters worse, she has no idea why. He only left his best friend Noah to look after her. Noah, who she finds excruciatingly annoying.

I wasn't sure if I could really connect with these characters at first, but I did. I found myself enjoying the story. There were times I wanted to scream at Joy to "wake up".

Noah is a great guy who is more than willing to be roped into whatever Joy chooses. He keeps trying to show her what a nice guy he is. I kept thinking, she had to realize it before he gave up and quit being a nice guy.

Everyone needs closure, right? Go along on the journey and see if Joy ever gets any closure with Zan? And where would that leave Noah anyway?

This is one of the books in the Contemps Challenge also. I'm giving it 4 sweet kisses! ( )

Like many things in life, my feelings for this book are a little complicated. I didn't love it or find myself sucked in by the amazing story, but I didn't hate it either. I kept trying to tell myself to put it down and pick another book, but I never did. I wanted to find out what happened when Joy found Zan. I knew what would probably happen when she found him in California, but something compelled me to prove my prediction. The simple fact that I kept reading the book even though my heart wasn't 100% percent in it must say something positive, right?

Let me go ahead and say why I wanted to put it down almost instantly. This book seemed too regionally specific. It felt geared toward one group of people in particular-- mainly those living within the Mormon community in Utah. Now, I am from deep in the Bible belt of the South. I cannot relate to this at all. Not even when I try. I like to think of myself as an open minded person, but I don't like little religious hints dropped throughout books that aren't meant to have religious undertones. Obviously, when every other page had a subtle hint to Mormon culture I wasn't thrilled. I thought I was reading a book about the loss of first love. I didn't know that so-called love pivoted around an entire culture/religion. I would probably not even care about this fact if the constant mentions were relevant, but the story would have been fine without 90% them.

On a positive note, the characters were okay. I couldn't relate to them (obviously), but I could sympathize with Joy. As my kids would say, she totally got played. Even worse, she doesn't realize it until she hears the love of her life (Zan) read a poem about her and his former town. (He calls the town and Joy "cardboard figures" and "fake.") It was harsh. I think it's worth noting that the real fake is Zan because he's the one that changes his identity when he gets to college. Unfortunately, Joy doesn't really make that connection. She sees that he's a jerk, but she doesn't want to admit the obvious. Instead, she wants to hold on to the positive things she remembers. I know that seems honorable, but it's irritating. Everyone else in the book could identify Zan as a creep and an idiot, why couldn't she?

Another major character worth noting is Noah. I couldn't actually not mention him since he's the chauffeur during this trip. I got the impression that he was another Adonis type boy (with the exception of having impeccable moral values). He was patient with his (at times) neurotic travel buddy. I guess you could describe Noah as the strong, silent type. I think that's the best fit for him. Joy thought she had "his type" all figured out (and she resented him because of her preconceived notions), but she realizes that she was wrong. Just like Zan wasn't what he first seemed, neither is Noah. There is depth to his character-- in essence. We don't see a whole lot of it in the book.

I thought about changing my rating to a 3, but I think I'm going to stick with my original score of a 2. It would be a solid 2.5 if I did half ratings. It honestly felt flat to me, but there was a lot of potential. The writing style is nice and flows very easily. It's witty at times, but also manages to be sentimental. I would probably read another book by this author in hopes that she works out some of the kinks I found in this book. ( )