You Can't Catch Me

You know what's really awesome about being friends with writers? They recommend other authors to you that you end up adoring. It's true! It's literary networking at its finest. For instance, Kelly Oram told me I should read some books by Cassie Mae, and boy, that was a good move for me! This voracious reader ate up How to Date a Nerd and Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend in a matter of days. So when Cassie Mae came over to Kelly's FB fan page waving eARCs, my hand was totally one of the first ones up.

From Goodreads:
"My body suuuucks. After lounging around on my butt all summer (okay, so maybe that was my bad), this body decided to become something completely foreign. So now I’m trying to make the track team and I feel like I’m a baby learning to walk again.

A couple pounds wouldn’t have been so bad. Work those off, run like a mad woman, no problem, yeah? But no. I’ve also developed a couple of things that I definitely didn’t have before. And now my guy friends are all sitting in a pool of drool as they not-so-subtly stare at my chest.

Combine all that drama with the fact that the new track coach is getting major flack for being a little chunky, and all I’m trying to do is convince the team that I’m not running slower because of her coaching style.

Oh, and did I mention that I’m totally falling face-first in “like” with some guy I met in a cemetery? And no one understands it just because he’s also a little chunky. But he’s also adorable and wonderfully weird and I don’t care what they say, his look sure does it for me.

But… I don’t know… how can I be in “like” with someone, when I have no clue how to like myself anymore?"

 In a word, You Can't Catch Me is adorable. I loveloveLOVE Ginger's voice. She is such a hoot and amazingly confident in her quirkiness. The story handles her new insecurity (her sudden development into a more womanly shape) with grace and compassion. Ginger reminded me of being a teenager and looking at my body while yelling, "I used to know how to operate you! What is up with this?!!!" Granted, my problems were of the tall girl type--constantly knocking my elbows and feet into things. It's pretty amusing to watch my 12-year-old go through the same issues.

ANYWAY.

The voice. Oh my heavens, the voice of this story! Not only is Ginger funny, but her relationships with the boys around her are fantastic. I especially love how she connects with Oliver and his own weirdness. It allll just meshes beautifully into a story about accepting yourself as you are. I've read it twice already because I loved it so much! THANK YOU, Cassie Mae, for bringing Ginger to life and sharing her with me. It's been a privilege to read this book.

GENTLE READER ALERT: Ok, so this is a story about a girl dealing with the fact that she grew some boobs. So. Deal with that, because it's funny and you'll totally relate to it. Other than that, I found nothing of concern.