Major Crush is definitely not a brain-bender, but it's cute and fun and allows for some really nice will-they-or-won't-they kind of tension, which I always love in a book. It was a nice quick reread. ( )

Reading Major Crush, or reading it for the third time, is such an unexpected pleasure. It's a sparkly, hilarious, witty, frothy YA delight from beginning to end.

Virginia has a lot of problems. Her best friend is in love with her. The boy she crushes on doesn't know she exists. She's not getting along with her dad. And she has to share being drum major of her high school band, even though she deserves to be the one-and-only girl in charge.

If you love funny, sweet, smart YA then you won't go wrong with Major Crush. Or anything Jennifer Echols writes, to be honest. ( )

Echols' books are wonderful, easy reads. This book reads like a typical teenage girl's daytime fantasy. While the main character is rich and beautiful, she feels like an outcast. She falls in love with her co-drum major, who happens to be gorgeous and sensitive. It takes the whole book to get there, with little "almosts" throughout, but they finally become a couple. Great book. Great author. Easy read. Highly recommended. ( )

So cute, so very, very cute. I think that actually brings me up to date with the Jennifer Echols novels which makes me quite sad – they were just charming. ( )

This is a super cute book and it’s a quick read, too. (Seriously, I devour Jennifer Echols’s books like midday snacks.) I almost hate to say that it’s super cute, because I don’t want to give the impression that it’s overly girly. I mean, it’s a romance, so it is girly, but it’s not cute as in a gaggle of girls will be “Awwwwwwwwww”-ing annoyingly about it. It’s cute in the sense that it’s got entertaining, fascinating characters that are easy to cheer for and that you want to end up together. Usually there are a few characters that seem a little flat, but Echols has a way of making you believe that every character has a clear backstory, even if it isn’t shared.
Both Virginia and Drew are intricately drawn characters. It was fun to watch as they broke down the wall that was between them. As they each reveal the reasons for various choices they’ve made in life, they become even more complex. While they work together more and more, the attraction between them is palpable. And although it’s expected that they’ll be together in the end, everything they go through before they get there is superb.
When the first halftime show of football season is a disaster, the new band teacher, Mr. Rush, has to step in and get them to work together. Mr. Rush absolutely cracks me up, with his first-year teacher missteps and family therapy sessions and casual reminders of Pizza Hut. I don’t think I’ve actually seen a teacher act like this with students (“Can I say that as her teacher, or is it sexual harassment?”), but remembering some of my classmates in my college education classes, I can see it as a very real possibility. I also love that he talks too candidly at faculty meetings and gets into trouble with the other teachers.
Let me add this: I’m not sure if it’s a Southern thing I’m connecting with or what, but Jennifer Echols, in a neck and neck race for the win over Sarah Dessen, writes the most attractive book boys. Ever. And for anyone who thinks sex sells romance books, chapter ten of this book (henceforth referred to as The Hand Flirting Chapter) is what I would present as my rebuttal. The Hand Flirting Chapter is a perfect example of what high school romance is all about.
Well, actually, the whole book is. And that is why I loved it. ( )