Series: The Ladybirds #2
Author: Jenny McLachlan
Published March 12th 2015 by Bloomsbury Children's
Goodreads Synopsis
Perfect Valentine's reading for fans of Geek Girl and Louise Rennison.
Betty Plum has never been in love. She's never even kissed a boy. But when H.O.T. Toby starts school it's like Betty has been hit with a thousand of Cupid's arrows. It's like a bomb has exploded – a love bomb!
More than ever Betty wishes her mum hadn't died when Betty was a baby. She really needs her mum here to ask her advice. And that's when she finds hidden letters for just these moments. Letters about what your first kiss should feel like and what real love is all about …
Is Betty ready to fall in love? Will she finally have her first kiss?
Goodreads
Review
See my review for the previous book:
- Flirty Dancing (#1)
As I have an ARC of book 3, Sunkissed, this was the perfect opportunity to read Love Bomb for the first time. Love Bomb follows Betty, who I adored in book 1, Flirty Dancing. Betty is weird, and wacky, and just the perfect amount of strange and loveable that we need in cutesy contemporary fiction. Even though I'm now 20, I adore reading UKYA contemporaries such as the Geek Girl series, and Jessica Cole: Model Spy. The Ladybirds is no exception to this! To be honest, I feel like I'm back to being a teenager when I read books such as this; all the British colloquialisms and inside jokes make it a much more enjoyable experience.
As I've already said, Betty was a wonderful protagonist, and I could easily read more books from her point of view. As with most contemporaries, there was a split of fluffy nonsense with actual real life issues, meaning the books stay with you for days to come. In Love Bomb, Betty is a fifteen year old, dealing with the fact that her widowed father is now dating again, all at the same time as she has her first crush on the new boy, Toby. Toby, I was not a fan off. However, I liked his presence as it allowed Betty to discover herself, and, also, discover her mother. Betty had been receiving letters her mother left for her, before she died of cancer, and through these letters, especially the more personal ones hidden in the loft, Betty could really understand her mother better, and, ultimately, fall in love with the woman who desperately wished she could have been there through the years. Personally, I would've loved to have met Lorna, Betty's mam, as she seemed to be a truly amazing woman, and even though she was no longer with Betty, in the physical sense, she helped her it the best way possible.
Betty's gang of friends, the original Ladybirds, bar Pearl, were just as lovely as in Flirty Dancing, and I can't wait to read Kat's story in Sunkissed. I truly hope that by the end of the series The Ladybirds are together again, and are all friends. Bollie (Bea and Ollie from Flirty Dancing) were as cute as ever, and Emma continues to steal the scene with every appearance she made.
The best thing about the book was the romance between Bill and Betty. From the start I had hoped Bill would be the love interest, and my wait was well rewarded. Even though it took some time to come to fruition, we could see how compatible the two were, and how they transitioned from best friends to being in love, and together. Again, I hope they have a good, supporting role in subsequent books, as I am desperate to find out how their relationship progresses.
All in all, this was a wonderful addition to a delightful series, and I can't wait to dive into my ARC of Sunkissed. I'd absolutely recommend this series to lovers of contemporary fiction, UKYA, and just plain cutesy books!
Dates Read:
July 11, 2015
Rating
4 Stars
