A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison
Narrated by:
Publication Date: US May 3, 2016
Publisher: Recorded Books
After thirty-six hours of listening to The Passage, A Totally Awkward Love Story was quite a break in comparison, in length as well as tone. That is by no means to say that A Totally Awkward Love Story was not a good book, just totally different.
Hannah intends to lose her virginity to Freddie at Stella’s party that evening, but he’s late. While she’s loitering in the bathroom, Sam knocks on the door, but as Hannah’s about to leave they fall into a conversation and hit it off. She becomes “Ribena Girl” because of their shared love for hot Ribena and he becomes “Toilet Boy.” It’s love at first sight.
A summer of misadventure follows, with awkward situations and misunderstandings, culminating in an equally awkward resolution.
A Totally Awkward Love Story is a British young adult novel by two writers, Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison who were former high school lovers. Each chapter is told from either Hannah’s point-of-view or Sam’s. True to reality, Hannah is already more mature than Sam, but she’s insecure because she’s been best friends with the visually beautiful Stella since they were small. Stella loves being the center of attention and tries to control any and all situations, which has begun to irritate Hannah and also leads to their falling out several times.
Sam and his friends remind me of the boys on the British show, The Inbetweeners, with an exception being that Sam and Chris are attractive and probably don’t fall into as embarrassing situations, but their focus seems to be the same. Sam and Robin and the other boys provide much of the comic relief in the novel through their exploits, whether it’s smoking pot in “Harry Potter’s bedroom” (a closet under the stairs at Stella’s house) or trying to be cool with pretty girls.
I must admit that a good way through the novel, I wished that Hannah would fall for someone else as Sam’s immaturity grated, however, he does redeem himself.
There are sexual encounters, frank sexual discussion, and raunchy language so use your discretion if obtaining for a younger person.
I found it to be a funny, light read with a good plotting and good characterizations.
The narrators did a very good job with the story, with Lee Maxwell Simpsom’s sections perhaps a tad better at diversifying voices than Avita Jay’s, still, very listenable.
I won a copy of the recorded book from Recorded Books and LibraryThing and am providing an honest review in exchange.
rating: 
(4 out of 5 butterflies)