Book Review: The Truth About Jack by Jody Gehrman

Title: The Truth About Jack

Author: Jody Gehrman

Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC

Date: April 15th, 2015

Pages: 242

Format: eARC

Source: from Publisher for a review

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Dakota McCloud has just been accepted into a prestigious art school. Soon she’ll leave behind the artists’ colony where she grew up―hippie dad, tofu since birth, yurt―and join her boyfriend and best friend on the East Coast. It was the plan…until Dakota finds out her boyfriend and best friend hooked up behind her back.

Hurt and viciously betrayed, Dakota pours out her heart on a piece of paper, places it in a bottle, and hurls it into the ocean. But it doesn’t quite go where she expects…

Jack Sauvage finds the bottle washed up on the shore and responds to Dakota’s letter. Except what if his straight-laced life doesn’t jive with the free-spirited girl he’s only seen from afar? As Jack creates a persona he believes she’ll love, they slowly fall for each other with each new letter. Now Jack is trying to find a way to make this delicate, on-paper romance happen in real life…without revealing his deception.

Review: 

Let me tell you the truth about Jack. He is an insecure kid who falls in obsession at first sight. Not in love, obsession(at least that’s what seemed to me).
He sees Dakota and all of the sudden he has to be near her, he knows she would be the right for him so he starts showing up in the bakery he thinks she would be in. He follows her around and he gives me chills while reading about those scenes.
In the real life, i don’t think any girl would be happy to cross her paths with him. He was a wierdo and I often questioned his intellingence.
No matter if he is insecure, he has no problem in judging others by their look.
I didn’t like his POV and I’m not gonna lie, at times, it felt like torture reading his perspective.
I’m glad that thing changed in the second half of the book.I’m not sure if his voice started to sound better or if I just got used to it.

On the other hand, it was such a pleasure reading Dakota’s POV. She is one very interesting character. She’s the one who saved this book (for me). She is funny and whise, and people she surrounded herself with are interesting as well.
I have never read anything about modern hippies so I enjoyed exploring their community and I wish there were more scenes about them.

The writing style is good.
This was the first Gehrman’s book I read and I doubt it would be the last.
I think she is a good author because she managed for two different POVs to sound totally different and if there weren’t notifications who’s perspective I was reading at time, I wouldn’t have a problem to know it by myself.
She also builted complexed characters solidly. At times I would question why would certain character act the way he did, and then I would remember something that happened in his life before and it would make sense.
I liked that.
I like it when characters have a little bit of gray blended in their peronalities.

Overall, the story was okay, cute at times and while reading I didn’t have that feeling that often comes with reading contemporary YA novel, the one that tells you you’re reading something you’ve already read or seen in the movie. This time, it felt like I hadn’t read anything similar to this novel before.

I know this novel wouldn’t be what it is now without Jack’s perspective, but that very perspective is the reason why I couln’t give this book a decent four stars rating.
Jack and I, we just couldn’t get along!
I often wished this book was written only in Dakota’s perspective so I could give it higher rating, but I understand stories have to have not only enjoyable moments but the ones not so interesting, or maybe ones that could make you feel the way you don’t want to feel as well, to achieve completeness in developing.