Book Review: Bloom by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Bloom

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: April, 2007

Softback: 240 pages

Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone

How I got this book: Bought

Why I chose this book: I’ve read all of Elizabeth Scott’s other books except this one.  I loved all the others–why not Bloom? 

Synopsis:
             

               There’s a difference between falling and letting go. Lauren has a good life: decent grades, great friends, and a boyfriend every girl lusts after. So why is she so unhappy? It takes the arrival of Evan Kirkland for Lauren to figure out the answer: She’s been holding back. She’s been denying herself a bunch of things because staying with her loyal and gorgeous boyfriend, Dave, is the “right” thing to do. After all, who would give up the perfect boyfriend? But as Dave starts talking more and more about their life together, planning a future Lauren simply can’t see herself in and as Lauren’s craving for Evan, and moreover, who she is with Evan becomes all the more fierce Lauren realizes she needs to make a choice … before one is made for her.

Review:

The Cover: I really love this cover.  I think it’s perfect for the type of genre and story that this book is.  On the cover, there’s a daisy in the girls hair.  And to me, this kind of shows how everyone thinks of her as the perfect girl with the perfect life and the perfect boyfriend. 

The Characters: I was surprised by how hard it was for me to connect with these characters.  I learned a lot about most of the characters, but it all felt… clinical.  Forced.  I couldn’t relate on an emotional level.  Usually I have a great time reading about Scott’s simply complex characters, but things were different in this book.

Lauren, the main character, has the most perfect boyfriend.  Everyone wants him.  Even she did…once.  But not anymore.  Things with Dave are predictable, nice, but boring.  And because of Dave’s beliefs, things never go beyond kissing.  And even though Lauren realizes these things, realizes that what she has with Dave isn’t anything special, she stays with him.  Because it’s what other people expect.  Because it makes other people happy. 

Dave.  Oh, Dave.  Even though he was a partially main character, I feel like I hardly know him.  He seems very boring and church-y.  Maybe he was made to be seen like this–but I don’t like it.  Nobody is that simple.  Nobody is perfect.  So I felt like there were some loose ends left with Dave. 

The Plot:  Lauren is with Dave.  Everyone thinks they are the perfect couple, and it seems it will always stay that way.  Even Lauren thinks so.  Until her former companion, Evan Kirkland comes along.  Evan sparks feelings inside Lauren that she never knew existed.  And as she starts spending more time with Evan, she’s not sure which is worse: feeling more alive than she’s ever felt, and turning into the type of person she believes here mother to be like.

As we follow Lauren through this story of self-understanding, the story moves at a generally fast past.  But I can’t help but be annoyed by the many scenes of repetitiveness.  I feel like their could be so much more to this story, such a powerful plot.  But I didn’t get that out of this.

Overall: I liked this book, I really did.  But I hadn’t known it was written by Elizabeth Scott, I would never have guessed.  All her other books had really plucked at my heartstrings, while this one only stirred a butterfly or two. 

Spare Thoughts:  Elizabeth Scott’s new book, Between Now and Forever, comes out in May of 2011.  I’ll still be getting the book, even though I was slightly disappointed by this one.

Final: Bloom was an intriguing yet predictable read.

Other books by this author: Love You Hate You Miss You, Stealing Heaven, Something, Maybe, The Unwritten Rule, Perfect You, Grace, and Living Dead Girl.