Peace, Love & Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle

Peace, Love & Baby Ducks

by Lauren Myracle

The Gist (courtesy of Amazon):

Growing up in a world of wealth and pastel-tinted entitlement, fifteen-year-old Carly has always relied on the constancy—and authenticity—of her sister, Anna. But when fourteen-year-old Anna turns plastic-perfect-pretty over the course of a single summer, everything starts to change. And there are boys involved, complicating things as boys always do. With warmth, insight, and an unparalleled gift for finding humor even in stormy situations, beloved author Lauren Myracle dives into the tumultuous waters of sisterhood and shows that even very different sisters can learn to help each other stay afloat.

My Rating:

I give this book four out of five stars.  I actually picked up this novel just because of the cover, which is something I usually don't do. But who can resist baby ducks? So, because of that I decided that I was going to put complete trust in the cover and read the book without any description (including the jacket cover).  My result was pleasant :)

This book goes way deeper than I'd imagined. This book tackles a lot of tough issues- race, body image, money. Even after reading the jacket flap after I finished the novel, I would have never guessed it. For that, I admire Myracle.

On the other hand, I have to say I just got so irked with the protaganist Carly. She just tried too hard to be different to the point that she hurt a lot of her relationships. After finishing the novel, though, I think Myracle wanted us to see Carly's faults, which is something I don't see a lot of authors do. There were times I just wanted to yell at Carly and tell her how crazy she was being. I realize now that I appreciate Myracle for causing that frustration. 

I realize now that you can't like every character and every character is not going to have perfectly good morals and is just misunderstood. They're going to drive you crazy sometimes and I appreciate Myracle for having Carly drive me crazy in just the right way. 

What's stopping this book from being in the elite five star club is that I wish there would have been more of a focus on Roger, one of the two sane people in this novel (the other being Carly's best friend Vonzelle). I feel like there could have been more done with his character and his relationship with Carly. Though when he did come into the picture, he was there at just the right moments.

Peace, Love & Baby Ducks is out now.