Burnouts, Geeks, and Jesus Freaks:A Love Story by Karen Gordon Pages: 290
Published by Createspace Independent Pub on March 4, 2014
Genres: contemporary, Love & Romance, New Adult
Source: ecopy from Author
They’re burnouts - a little short on parents, money and plans for the future, but they’ve got each other and a whole lot of fun. With a world of crazy at home, Carrie Gould needs them to keep her sanity. To stay in their world she needs to keep dating the guy with the party house, which would be fine, if she hadn’t fallen in love with someone else.
He’s such a geek. Ben Gorman is obsessive, smart, strong-willed and on the fast track to his dream of becoming an Army Ranger. He’s also the only geek with a girl. Joelle Welker is perfect for him; a self-proclaimed Jesus freak, who is dedicated to her beliefs and to building a future with Ben. But those plans don’t include his neighbor, Carrie, or Ben’s dedication to her.
Their friendship started by chance. Their love started with trust.
Burnouts, Geeks and Jesus Freaks is a quirky and really sweet love story. The story starts in 1999 and spans many years, following the characters throughout childhood, high school and beyond. It was lots of fun, super sweet, and gives you a couple that you just want to root for against all odds. Ben and Carrie are next door neighbors, Ben falling into the geek category and Carrie falling more into the burnout category by default. But they are each so much more than their stereotypes. Karen Gordon does an excellent job at both poking fun at and exaggerating the stereotypes as she does with making her characters grow and break the mold.
Carrie has it rough at home. Her mother is basically unhinged and all she does it take it out on Carrie. Only Ben and MG know what her home life is really like. And because of her mothers verbal abuse, Carrie has a big issue with letting anyone see her cry. As weird as this sounds, tracking her progress with this fear throughout the novel was really sweet and endearing to me.
Ben is just the sweetest guy on the planet. Yes, one of his choices tore me up inside but he eventually makes up for it. Although, I will say that I doubted it for a while there. Things got pretty rough for some characters for a while. This book took me on a rollercoaster ride of all the emotions imaginable. I wanted to see a little bit more of what happened at the end of the story. The first 65% of the story was wonderfully detailed and the pacing was perfect and then things all started unraveling very fast and once they started to resolve themselves I wanted the pacing to slow down again so I could enjoy the end, but it was still at the same heightened pace. It wasn’t bad, but I selfishly wanted more Ben and Carrie.
Karen Gordon did a fantastic job with the writing in Burnouts, Geeks and Jesus Freaks. I laughed, I teared up, I awhed. It was quirky fun, had plenty of swoons and if you don’t fall in love with Ben I officially think something is wrong with you.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
kindlemom1
Alright I definitely need to read this one after reading that review!
What a great review, you make me want to pick this one up today and start it!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
This one was really good. I hope you do read it. 🙂
Thanks!
Amir
That title cracked me up and I the cover too! From your review, this definitely sounds like a fun and quirky read that deals with overcoming stereotypes and cliches! The romance sounds interesting and heartwarming as well. I am definitely checking this out..awesome review Michelle! <3
Michelle @ Book Briefs
Yea, the title is a hoot and I am all for a fun quirky read.
Thanks for stopping by Amir 🙂
sherry fundin
It’s nice when you want the start to slow down so the book will last longer.
Michelle @ Book Briefs
Yep, that’s when you know you are really enjoying a book 😉
I hope you are having a great week Sherry