Tween Tuesday: Lexie by Audrey Couloumbis

4 wonderful chocolate chips cookies using bittersweet chips.

Cover Love:
Yes! I adore Julia Denos. And...

Why I Wanted to Read This:
Because of the cover! The cover caught my eye, but the synopsis made me want to stay. Here it is from Good Reads:

Ten-year-old Lexie used to love going to the shore. For as long as she can remember, she's spent every summer there with her parents, eating hamburgers, swimming in the ocean, and combing the beach for treasure. This summer is going to be different though. Lexie's Mom and Daddy are divorced, and for the first time Mom won't be there. To make matters worse, Daddy has a surprise—his new girlfriend, Vicky, and her two sons are coming to stay with them for a week! Now Lexie has to share her house with perky Vicky, Vicky's moody teenage son Ben, and messy three-year-old Harris. The little beach house just doesn't seem big enough for so many people. Is there still room for Lexie?

I Kept Reading Because: It was quick and you really came to feel for the characters. It was hard to put down.

Romance?: No.

What I Liked (& Didn't):
This book was told from Lexie's point of view. She is an amazing almost-eleven year old, but also very typical. Her emotions are all over the map. She feels anger (rightly so), frustration, joy, love, unhappiness and peace all in a quick space of time. I think this is so normal for a child of this age, especially one whose parent's divorce is still pretty fresh.

When we first met her father I was as upset with him as she was. I really expected him to be angry with her attitude a lot, but the author tricked me on this one. Lexie didn't have a horrible attitude the whole time. She was not all happy, happy, but like I said before, her emotions were all over the place. And we saw her dad as a lonely, uncertain, kind of pathetic guy. And this is through Lexie's eyes! You couldn't but feel for the guy!

The same thing happened with Ben, Harris and Vicki, Lexie's "new" family. Ben wasn't just a surly teenager, but someone that Lexie could see having a friendship with. Harris wasn't just a sticky three year old, but someone who would eventually look up to Lexie. And Lexie could already see positive changes Vicki made in her father.

Overall this was just so well written that you felt something (several somethings) for every character.

To Sum Up: Great, quick story about the changes divorce brings about in families. Very well written and with awesome illustrations!

Book requested and received from Random House. Thanks Lauren!