Book Review: Crush Control by Jennifer Jabaley

Crush Control by Jennifer Jabeley

Publisher: Razorbill

Publish Date: June 9, 2011

Paperback, 368 pages 
Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary
ISBN: 978-1595144249

Book Review:

I loved Crush Control, this was a great light-hearted contemporary young adult book. It wax very enjoyable and a real page-turner.  Willow makes a great main character, she wants to return to Georgia to her best friend she left at 9-years-old. She has kept in touch with Max since she left and she wants to create a romantic relationship to with him.  However when she returns, she finds him the same friend she has always had, friendly, caring, and the banter between them comes right back when they are face to face.  He drives her to school, he sneaks in her room (even though he doesn't have to, her mom adores him) but he has a girlfriend.  This is a presents major problem for Willow's plan to make Max her boyfriend.

Willow quickly finds a good friend in Georgia a slight outcast that gives Willow the lowdown on how the hierarchy of the school and about Quinton who Willow met the first day she came back to town.  I loved Georgia and her diagrams and her wit and humor.  Soon several members of the school learn of Willow's past in Las Vegas and her mom's hypnosis show and ask her to hypnotize as a type of party trick during one of Quinton's parties.  Being thrilled at being invited to the party she agrees to do this even though she knows her mom would not want her to do it.  Her mom is trying to leave the Las Vegas lifestyle behind and is work as a hypnotist in a pain clinic in town.  But Willow being the new girl, she does it and impresses the kids and soon draws attention of two popular students that think they need hypnotism to help them with different parts of their lives.  Willow debates whether to do this and ultimately decides to help and suddenly is part of the popular crowd.  At the same time Willow is dealing with the outcome of her hypnotisms and fitting in with the popular crowd, she is also trying to get her mother and her grandmother back together and not upset her mother as well. And there is Max who seems to like her, but every time she thinks he does, something happens and he seems to change.  Soon Willow's life is a mess of her own making and she and Georgia are working hard to make it all better, which leads to several humorous episodes that I think really bring out Ms. Jabaley's sense of humor and make the book.

I really love this book.  I thought the hypnotism angle was fresh and new.  It made a nice added dimension to the plot.  Willow was a great typical yet interesting teenage girl, she's trying to do things right and to fit in and she wants Max as a boyfriend.  Willow made a strong character, yes things get out of control, but she always tries to fix things with the help of Georgia.  I also like Max, he's just that all-around great guy that all girls want as their best friend and as a boyfriend.  Ms. Jabeley wrote an amazing story that entertains, teaches a lesson and can make you laugh.  I like the simple young adult books like this one (and I don't mean simple in a bad way - I just mean no paranormal element, no real harsh teaching element, just teenagers being teenagers).  This is an excellent book and I cannot recommend it enough.  You will quickly fall in love with Willow, her mother, Max and Georgia and their antics will keep you turning pages to see what will happen next.  I see this as going down as one of my favorite YA novels of this year!

Book Rating:  5.0/5.0

About the Book:
Willow has spent most of her life as her mother's sidekick in a popular Las Vegas hypnotism show. So when she and her mom move back to their sleepy southern hometown to start over, she thinks she's in for a life of quiet normalcy. Except that her new life turns out to be anything but, when she kinda sorta hypnotizes Quinton, the hottest guy on the football team, to fall madly, deeply, head over heels in love with her. But what started out as an innocent way to make her best friend, Max, jealous soon gets way out of hand, and Willow begins to wonder if the mind - and more importantly, the heart - is something you can really control.

About the Author: 
Jennifer Jabaley grew up in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and has been known to spend more time modeling sunglasses than seeing patients at her optometry practice. Jen lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia, with her husband and two small children.

FTC Information: I received this book from the publisher through BookSparks PR for an honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.