Review: #16thingsithoughtweretrue by Janet Gurtler.

Posted April 14, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Rowena’s review of #16thingsithoughtweretrue by Janet Gurtler.

Heart attacks happen to other people #thingsIthoughtweretrue

When Morgan’s mom gets sick, it’s hard not to panic. Without her mother, she would have no one—until she finds out the dad who walked out on her as a baby isn’t as far away as she thought…

Adam is a stuck-up, uptight jerk #thingsIthoughtweretrue

Now that they have a summer job together, Morgan’s getting to know the real Adam, and he’s actually pretty sweet…in a nerdy-hot kind of way. He even offers to go with her to find her dad. Road trip, anyone?

5000 Twitter followers are all the friends I need #thingsIthoughtweretrue

With Adam in the back seat, a hyper chatterbox named Amy behind the wheel, and plenty of Cheetos to fuel their trip, Morgan feels ready for anything. She’s not expecting a flat tire, a missed ferry, a fake girlfriend…and that these two people she barely knew before the summer started will become the people she can’t imagine living without.

I’ve enjoyed Janet Gurtler’s books in the past and this sounded like a good story, so I jumped right in.

When Morgan’s Mom is rushed to the hospital, Morgan’s life begins to crumble around her. Her Mom is all she’s got left, outside of her twin brothers. She wouldn’t have a parent anymore because her father is different from the twin’s Dad and they’re still in constant contact with their Dads but not Morgan. Morgan’s never known who her Dad is. Every time she asked her Mom, she refused to tell her…until she thinks she’s dying.

Morgan’s Mom feels like the end is near for her and she wants Morgan to know how sorry she is for not telling her who her father is and when Morgan gets a name, it’s hard for her to not research her father. To find out all she can about him, to want to meet him and find out why he abandoned her and her mother all those years ago. She is so full of self-righteousness that when she goes on a road trip to meet his father of hers, her world is tilted on its axis and she’s thrown completely off.

Before the road trip though, her best friend Lexi posted a video of Morgan dancing in men’s underwear and she becomes an internet celebrity…but more like Miley Cyrus celebrity (not the good kind). People whisper about her behind her back, they laugh and mock her and her best friend Lexi? Yeah, she dumped her. So Lexi spends most of her time alone. Until she meets Amy from work. And with Amy, comes Morgan’s jerk of a boss, Adam.

Over the course of this book, Morgan finds out a lot about herself and about the people she surrounds herself with. Her brothers are both good to her, her mother keeps secrets and is sick and two very unlikely people come to mean so much to her.

I really liked getting to know Amy and Adam. I thought they were fantastic additions to this story but Morgan was a lot harder to connect with. The stuff she was worried about, she shouldn’t have been worried about. The things she thought and did throughout this book either made me want to smack the shit out of her or pull her hair. It was a toss up between the two. When Amy comes into her life and she starts to be influenced by her, I was glad for it. I was glad for the influence that Adam had on her as well. They were both such great characters and I was glad that Morgan had them in her life. She really needed them…or I don’t think I would have ever come around to liking her character.

This isn’t my favorite book by Gurtler, but it was still a good one. I wish I had connected more with Morgan and I wish I would have understood her mother’s intentions but overall, this book was still enjoyable. I’ll definitely be reading more by this author.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Sourcebooks Fire. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest opinion.


Tagged: , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.