Tuesday, December 21, 2010

REVIEW: The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

Love is all you need... or is it? Penny's about to find out in this wonderful debut.

Penny is sick of boys and sick of dating. So she vows: no more. It's a personal choice. . .and, of course, soon everyone wants to know about it. And a few other girls are inspired. A movement is born: The Lonely Hearts Club (named after the band from Sgt. Pepper). Penny is suddenly known for her nondating ways . . . which is too bad, because there's this certain boy she can't help but like. . . .


The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg is such fun. It's very readable and I was finished with this book in no time.

Penny Lane's parents are mad about The Beatles. Hence the name. And despite how uncool it is to be into the same things your parents are, Penny is actually into The Beatles too. How could anyone not be? So when a relationship disaster happens and Penny is left holding the pieces of her broken heart, she turns to the Fab Four for inspiration. Based on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, Penny decides to create her own club for Lonely Hearts and gives up dating high school boys for good.

What follows isn't what Penny expected at all. As her friends and then more and more of the female population at school hear about Penny's idea, they start to band together, swapping horror stories and tales of mistreatment from other high school boys and would-be boyfriends. They each decide to put themselves first, begin to show more respect for themselves and for each other as girls and as friends. What started off as an idea to help just one person snowballs into a school-wide movement. And now instead of dates to homecoming, girls are forming big girl-groups to go together to dances and are spending their Friday nights in girl-bonding as opposed to subjecting themselves to dating. But when is enough enough? Surely there are some decent guys in high school, right? What happens when the perfect guy does come along? What happens to female-solidarity and vows of singledom then?

I think The Lonely Hearts Club had some decent ideas and concepts. Treating yourself right, being more careful and choosy about your romantic partners and putting your friends before your boyfriends. You can definitely see where things are heading with The Lonely Hearts Club but that's no bad thing either. It was a lot of fun, lots of girl-time and emphasis on friendship together with the first hints of new romance. Plus, lots and lots of Beatles references. I've never read a book where I felt like listening to music so much during and after reading a book. And The Beatles just put a smile on my face, as did this book.

A big thank you to Lynsey for organising the UK Book tour of this book, very much appreciated.

5 comments:

  1. This looks really good. I must have missed this tour. Lynsey does such a fabulous job.

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  2. This really sounds like my type of book! Thank you for the great review.

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  4. I've heard some really, really great things about this book and can definitely see myself enjoying this book, especially considering the fact that I like The Beatles too :D

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  5. Vivienne - Lynsey does do an incredible job! I feel really lucky to have all those tours available to me :) And yes, it is quite good!

    Luisa - No problem! This one is really sweet and fun :)

    Tammy - The urge to listen to The Beatles while/after reading this book will be almost uncontrollable :)

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