Title:  Between Boyfriends
Author: Sarka-Jonae Miller
Publisher/Year:  Liberty Co 11/7/13
Length:  296 pages

Overview

At first glance, twenty-one-year-old Jan Weston has it all: a gorgeous boyfriend, fun friends, and wealthy parents who take care of all those pesky credit card bills. Then her boyfriend dumps her, her friendships fall apart, and her parents cut her off. Suddenly without money, without a man, and without a plan, it’s time for Jan to grow up. Determined to get her life back on track, Jan decides it’s time to make it on her own. Can she find her way as a single lady in San Diego? Can she fix her friendships, her job prospects, and her hair? And can she keep her vow that she’ll never date again, even after she meets a guy who just might be perfect for her?

My Thoughts

You get what you expect here, a coming of age/maturity journey of Jan an early 20 something who’s really coming to terms with who she is and what she’s made of her life so far.

This story starts off with Jan getting dumped by her boyfriend of 8 months and she falls into a bit of a depression.  What opens her eyes though is that while she’s wallowing, she goes into her bathroom to clean herself up and realizes that she’s got tons of reminders of exes of her past in her cabinets and drawers.  i.e. brushes, gels, shampoos, all sorts of things.  What this does for her is makes her realize that maybe she’s been with people for so long that she doesn’t know who she is or what value she has in life and decides that she’s going to remain single indefinitely.  Her ‘best friends’ think that it’s something that can’t be done and wage a little bet on it even.

One of the challenges here for Jan is that she’s really had quite an easy life.  Her father pampers her and gives her whatever she wants.  i.e. financial support since he’s not the emotional support kind of guy.  Where this becomes a problem though is when Jan’s mother finds out what Jan has really been up to – dropping out of state college and going to massage school and makes her pay the money back.  This layered on top of everything makes life really hard for her.

I think that throughout this story you want to root for a big change in Jan, and expect that it’ll happen but hope that it won’t be too easy so that she’ll learn a good life lesson.  She goes through stages where she starts to alienate friends and is even ok with it, but finds her way back to being healthy and smart.

I can’t say that this story was earth shattering and game changing, but it was a nice young adult read that shows you the challenges that a spoiled girl has in life when she wants to become something more…something better.