This book was pretty good. It tells the story of two sisters whose relationship falls apart all of a sudden. The younger sister is on a mission to find out why. On her quest for answers, she must also tackle other issues that teenagers deal with.

This was a quick and easy read. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters. I read this book in a day and a half. I was eager to find out what would happen next. I, like Roz, wanted to know why she and Eva were no longer as close as they use to be. As I continued reading, I was able to guess the reason before Roz could, but it was still exciting to read and find out that I was right. This is the second book I have read by this author and I am becoming a fan of her work. ( )

While I suspect some of the humour either went over or under my head (it’s been a while since my high school days), and I have a few issues with the basic premise, My Invented Life was still a fun, crazy read.

While there’s a bit more to their relationship that drives the story, things really begin when Roz becomes convinced her sister is really a closet lesbian, after finding a suspicious book in Eva’s room. When Eva denies being a lesbian, Roz pretends to come out of the closet herself, all in an effort to convince her sister that it’s okay to be a lesbian . . . so she’ll dump her boyfriend, and leave Roz to swoop in to catch him on the rebound.

While it’s handled respectfully, and is ultimately supportive, the very idea of the fake-lesbian storyline bothered me. It just doesn’t seem like something I could imagine a teenager really doing, no matter how much more accepting her peers might be than when I was in school. Of course, humour is most often borne out of absurdity, so I forced myself to just go with the flow . . . and enjoyed it.

Besides, there are more than enough LGBT supporting characters in the book to provide a welcome balance. After all, this is a story built around a drama club . . . not that I’m trying to stereotype anyone. (grin)
Roz is such a drama queen, with her Shakespearean insults and odd habit of rehearsing conversations (a quirk I share), it was hard not to like her. She’s ridiculously boy-crazy, going to extreme lengths to get her man, and crazily competitive as a sister, but she’s also a good person at heart. In the end, once the challenge has gone too far, all she wants is to have her best-friend back in Eva.

Eva I found much harder to like, especially since she seemed to spend much of the novel sulking. It would have been a very different novel had she been allowed to take the lead, but as curious as I am how things would have looked through her eyes, it would have robbed us much of the fun.

Overall, a good book (even if it’s not one I would normally read), and one that kept me smiling, even as I shook my head in wonder!
( )

Too much drama; it was hard to keep up with all the lies, betrayals, and romances between the characters. I found this book through the lesbian teen fiction list and was disappointed to realize it was the story of a nosy little sister who pretends to be lesbian/bisexual on a dare. Ugh, can we not? It was interesting enough — I kept reading, at least — but definitely not a book I'd read again, or recommend to others.

This is fun realistic teen fiction and I enjoyed it. The main character, Roz, is a quirky, funny and somewhat self absorbed girl who is just looking to find her place in her family, with her group of friends, with boys (or girls?) and eventually learns to be comfortable in her own skin.

The book is written in first-person from Roz's perspective so the reader gets full view of her. She's funny and smart and a little bit nosy. Ok, she's a lot nosy, but she always has good intentions. Seeing from her point of view is quite entertaining as there are these little asides inside her head. She imagines the way a scene will go - and then tells how it actually went. These asides are, of course, overly dramatic and always go her way and are really funny. I found Roz to be a little bit manic and crazy at times which kind of made me exhausted reading her. I don't know if everyone will enjoy the first-person perspective but it definitely gives a comical slant to the whole story.

The supporting cast of characters is varied and important to the story. They are all fellow drama geeks and have unique personalities. Since the book is from Roz's perspective, we meet them all through Roz's sometimes biased opinions of each. I would have loved to learn even more about each of them but I don't think

Roz and the rest of the drama geeks are performing Shakespeare's As You Like It as their school play. It's a humorous parallel to the teenage drama of Roz's life. Each character is in love with someone who is, in turn, in love with someone else. The main character is pretending to be someone she is not. By the end of the book - and the play - the truth is revealed and each person has found happiness with the person they are meant to be with.

Overall, this book takes a truthful look at the issues of teenage sexuality and identity in a humorous way through the eyes of an amusing young girl. It's a fun and quick read and will appeal to fans of lighter realistic fiction. It's not "heavy" or serious enough to be on par with other realistic teen reads (John Green's work, for example) but it's not meant to be.

Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the author through Crossroads Reviews and Tours. All opinions are 100% honest and my own. ( )

There is a lot to like here, not the least of which is the Shakespearean flavor (both a high school production of As You Like It and a heroine with a penchant for quoting The Bard). It starts out as it goes on, and I'll confess it took me a good hundred pages to begin to love it, but at the end I was a believer. The characters are complex, fluid, authentic teens- many of whom are trying to find out where exactly they fit on Kinsey's scale. There're also sibling dynamics to contend with, and oddments of history which float through. I didn't think the world was particularly solid, even though it's contemporary- there didn't seem to be enough grounding, somehow. There were some false notes for me (the dog, for one), but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this once I warmed up to it. I'm looking forward to Bjorkman's next book. ( )