Publisher:
Simon and
Schuster
Release
Date: 30th
January 2013
Edition:
UK paperback,
review copy
Other
Titles by this Author: Lucy in the Sky, Johnny be
Good, Chasing Daisy, Pictures
of Lily, Baby
Be Mine, One
Perfect Summer,
The
Longest Holiday
Meet
Jessie, small-town girl turned wild-child...
When
her mum dies, Jessie thinks any hope of finding her real dad is gone. As she
goes off the rails, her stepdad makes a shocking announcement: her father is
legendary rockstar and former hell-raiser, Johnny Jefferson. Now the daughter
of a superstar, Jessie is suddenly sucked into the LA lifestyle – paparazzi,
parties and hot guitar-wielding boys included!
But
Jessie’s still reeling from her mother’s death and the truth about Johnny. Can
he live up to her expectations and help her move on? One thing’s for sure,
Jessie’s tiny little world just got a whole lot bigger...
My love for Paige Toon’s novels
is no secret, so the announcement that she was writing a YA series spinning off
from my favourite of her books made me squeal with joy. Rightly so because The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson was
awesome.
I have to admit that I struggled
to read it at first. Not because I worried that I wouldn’t live up to her adult
novels. Not because of my fear Jessie may cause issues between Johnny and Meg. But
because of the whole recently dead mum thing. It’s a subject that seems to pop
up in everything that I read lately, but this was the first time I nearly
couldn’t handle it. Jessie’s grief was gut-wrenching. The random memories
sparked by seemingly insignificant moments that came suddenly and unexpectedly
brought mine flooding back, the realisations of all of the things she would
never get to say to her mum, do with her, see with her. It made me cry a few
times with the sheer emotion of the moments. Don’t get me wrong, Paige Toon has
always been able to make me cry, but this...wow. It punched me in the heart.
Once I got past all of the
emotion and the story really started to move, I was able to get stuck headfirst
into it. It was so nice to be back in LA with Johnny, Meg, Barney and new
addition to the family, Phoenix. Johnny
Be Good and Baby Be Mine are two
of my favourites of Paige’s and I fell in love with Meg and Johnny completely
and I have to admit that as soon as Jessie met them, I was focusing a little more
on Meg than Jessie at points!
Seeing Meg from an outsider’s
point of view and Johnny from someone not overcome by his hotness was weird and
strangely cool. And I still adored them; in fact, I think it grew in some ways.
Seeing how in love they are, how great Johnny is with his boys, how much they’ve
both changed since the beginning of Johnny
Be Good made me all warm and squishy inside. Seeing Jessie trying to fit
into that unit was excellent. She’s so much like her dad! Not just the blonde
hair and piercing green eyes, but the attitude, tendency towards lashing out
and pushing down issues instead of confronting them.
The
Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson is
another stunner from Paige Toon and I can’t wait to see how Jessie and Johnny handle
being father and daughter in the public eye. Bring it on!
Huge thanks to S&S for the
review copy!
Sophie
sounds like such a cool book! might give it a try someitme soon :3
ReplyDeleteThis sounds absolutely brilliant, it might just be another for the wish list :)
ReplyDelete