Review: Confessions of An Almost - Girlfriend by Louise Rozett

Confessions of Almost - Girlfriend by Louise Rozett
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication date: June 18th 2013.
My rating: 5 stars 

Rose Zarelli has big plans for sophomore year—everything is going to be different. This year, she’s going to be the talented singer with the killer voice, the fabulous girl with the fashionista best friend, the brainiac who refuses to let Jamie Forta jerk her around... ...but if she’s not careful, she’s also going to be the sister who misses the signals, the daughter who can only think about her own pain, the “good girl” who finds herself in mid-scandal again (because no good deed goes unpunished) and possibly worst of all...the almost-girlfriend. When all else fails, stop looking for love and go find yourself.

Rose has come a long way since we last met her in Confessions of an Angry Girl. She still has that fire and passion which we see from time to time in little fiery outbursts. And she continually finds herself tangled up in other people’s messes even though she tries to stay away from it all. But she brings so much flair and spunk that you can’t but help forming such a strong connection with her.

Rose is still dealing with what happened at last year’s prom, she hasn’t heard a single peek from Jamie over the summer, so she has no clue where she stands with him. And Jamie is also the worst person to get anything out of, he’s kind, considerate and extremely hot, but the most closed off person ever, he never even gives an inch away in his facial expressions. So when Jamie finally makes an unexpected appearance, Rose is confused, she wants nothing more than to be with him, but he doesn’t even seem to acknowledge her. On top of stressing out over Jamie; Rose’s mother is on her case about taking down her site dedicated to her father. Rose doesn’t get why she’s being all uptight about it, she finds it’s her only outlet. Her mother feels the need to take her to joint counselling sessions too. Her brother Peter has gone off the rails and has turned to drugs, her mother isn’t either aware of the situation or is completely ignoring it and her best friend has finally staked her name at school with her big website The Sharp List. But what’s left for Rose? She still needs to figure out so much and people constantly holding out on her doesn’t help in the slightest.

I adored Rose’s character, even though she was up to her eyeballs in her own problems, she was always there making an effort (where as others saw this as poking her nose) with others. She was the only one to stand up to a bunch of bullies, but then to be blamed as ratting them out. It’s not Rose’s fault that she discovered things she wasn’t meant to, if people told the truth in the first place people wouldn’t have so many problems. Also I fully understood Rose’s outbursts; she had so much stress to deal with, that she was one of those people who used to be kept awake at night because of over thinking.  That she could only take everything for so long before she had to find and outlet of some sort. Whereas I adored Jamie in Confessions of an Angry Girl, I had kind of mixed feelings about him in this book. He constantly blew hot and cold with Rose, although I enjoyed some of the dreamy scenes between him and Rose I wish he would make his mind up already and decide what he wanted. The way things ended were kind of expected, I wished that things had been different, but I feel that the stance Rose took in the end really illustrated just how much she had matured. 

Despite there being so much chaos in Rose’s life, there was once again lots of humour littered through the book. Rose’s snark and honest judgements were refreshingly funny. Then there was also Robert and Angelo who had me in hysterics with their antics. Rozett also introduced some great new characters who brought wit, charm and charisma to the story making me want to hug this book and never let it go.

Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend was an epic follow up to Confessions of an Angry Girl. I didn’t think it was possible to love these characters anymore but Rozett managed to work her magic once again. I can’t wait to be back with this wonderful world that Rozett has created once more.