Review & Give@way of Blaze by Laurie Boyle Compton

Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains) by laurie Boyle Crompton

Paperback, 320 pages

Published: Feb. 1st, 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire

Source: Publisher

Blaze is tired of spending her life on the sidelines, drawing comics and feeling invisible. She's desperate for soccer star Mark to notice her. And when her BFF texts Mark a photo of Blaze in sexy lingerie, it definitely gets his attention. After a hot date in the back of her minivan, Blaze is flying high, but suddenly Mark's feelings seem to have been blasted by a freeze-ray gun, and he dumps her. Blaze gets her revenge by posting a comic strip featuring uber-villain Mark the Shark. Mark then retaliates by posting her "sext" photo, and, overnight, Blaze goes from Super Virgin Girl to Super Slut. That life on the sidelines is looking pretty good right about now...

This book was fantastic!  It started out good, but it wasn't really blowing my mind.  Well, that changed pretty quickly.  As the story went on I grew to like it more and more to the point that by the last quarter I really wanted to shout out to the world to read this book!

Blaze has a pretty hilarious inner dialogue.  So I spent a lot of time giggling.  But I also got emotionally involved on a different level because this book deals with a lot, but isn't angsty or filled with drama.  Not really anyway, not to the point it's a negative thing.  The description tells a lot, I think maybe it's a bit too much, but I guess I don't need to worry about spilling spoilers...

We start out with a Blaze that's in love with Mark.  Clearly we know they do get together, and it was kind of cute how they sort of got to know each other, but I thought it was clear right away that he was just trying to get in her pants.  He was kind of jerk almost right away, but Blaze had this image in her head of him and was just waiting for that Mark to show up.  She kept excusing his behavior.  But once it was clear to her she was being blown off she was hell bent on revenge.  And her idea was FANTASTIC!  But then it pushed him to do something stupid!  And that stupid thing ruined her reputation, possibly her life.  At least her teenage life...  But I found I was most furious about her friend sending a picture of Blaze in lingerie in the first place.  And trust me, it's even worse than that.  I'll let you read that though...  Once it gets out Blaze gets seriously bullied.  I mean this was horrible bullying that had me so furious I was aching to reach in the book and punch someone.

{I want to add in a bit here that I started thinking about later.  There is sex and it's on the page.  We know it happens and we know they don't use a condom.  This really bothered me but I assumed that we'd see the repercussions of that mistake.  Unfortunately I don't feel we saw enough repercussions of that mistake, so I feel I need to point that out.  I initially forgot about it because I loved the book so much but after some thought I realized that that aspect of the book does really bother me.}

But when Blaze snapped after being pushed just a bit too far, is when the more emotional stuff comes into play.  I love when authors show the kindness of strangers, and we saw that in this book.  While her mother was too busy working and hating on her father, her father was too busy trying to be an actor in NYC, her friends were busy trying not to get sucked into the negativity in Blazes life, the only one she had left was her 13 year old brother.  But she couldn't confide in him about this.  So when strangers step in and show her kindness, it had me bawling.  Yep, I bawled.  But it was the good kind.  There's so much negativity in the world, I love seeing the kindness of strangers.  There's far more good people than bad.  It's good to see it.

While this book has a bit of a negative romantic relationship, there actually IS a good guy on the sidelines. Once you meet him you will know immediately that he'll stand by Blaze even when she's terrified to show her face in public.  Someone who is actually good for her.

I loved that Blaze's brother was such an important part of the story.  Siblings that may fight a little, but for the most part really stand by each others side.  That confide in each other and understand the other.  It was a fantastic relationship that I wish we'd see more of in books.

The book is gorgeous.  Not only the lovely cover, but it's filled with sketches that Blaze does and they are really good.  And actually add a lot to the story.  While Blaze is a huge comic book nerd, and I'm not, that wasn't an issue.  Yeah, comics are talked about, but it's not in a way that we get lost or anything.  And her way of turning her life into a comic is hilarious!

I *think* this is likely a stand alone novel.  But I have my fingers crossed that it becomes a series.  I would LOVE to see Blaze's story continued.  While there was a pretty good conclusion I do think there's more story to tell too. (You hear me Laurie?!)

I definitely recommend this to mature readers.  There are some fairly descriptive sexy moments.  Below the waist stuff was pretty quick, but the top portion of the body stuff was described.  I wouldn't point this out but I have had parents and teachers say this is helpful to them.

I loved this book!  Read it!

Disclosure: I received this book for review.  All opinions expressed are my own, and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

The awesome folks at Sourcebooks are giving away one copy of Blaze to one lucky winner!

You must be 13 or older to enter.

Open to US and Canada only.

Ends Feb. 19, 2013

a Rafflecopter giveaway