undiscovered gyrl Book Contest

This is the first (of hopefully many) book contests at DeeeLovely. I have two Advance Reader Copies of Allison Burnett’s undiscovered gyrl to give away. You get to read it first because this book will not be on sale until August 11th. If you read my review, you know I really love this book and my wish is for these two copies to find their way to other readers to enjoy.

There are two ways to win and one winner will be selected from each category:

1) Comment at my Undiscovered Gyrl review page as to why this book sounds interesting to you and why you want to read this book. It’s that easy, but I get to choose the winner, so the most convincing/thoughtful response gets the book! Send a copy of your comment with your e-mail (so I can contact you if you win) through my contact page or leave your e-mail in your comment.

2) Recommend a book you’ve recently read and enjoyed and tell us why you loved it in a comment to this post. Winner 2 will be randomly selected from this group. Send a copy of your comment with your e-mail (so I can contact you if you win) through my contact page or leave your e-mail in your comment.

The fine print (in not so fine print): This contest is open to anyone in the continental US. Contest ends next Thurday, August 6th at 11:59pm EST, books will be mailed on Friday August 7th. The winner will be contacted by email and must respond by 2pm EST on Friday August 7th or a new winner will be chosen. You are welcome to enter both categories, but the same person cannot win both copies. Good Luck!

*** Congratulations to our winners Becca and Icedream!  Thanks to everybody who entered, we had a lot of thoughtful replies and great book suggestions. Keep an eye out for more book giveaways at DeeeLovely. Icedream and Becca, enjoy your books and come back and let us know what you thought of it. ***

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Review: “undiscovered gyrl, a novel” by Allison Burnett

When I was reading this, I kept thinking to myself:  if it were possible for a book and a film to have a torrid love affair (J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Daisy von Scherler Mayer’s Party Girl, respectively), their offspring might look something like Undiscovered Gyrl.  I was completely engrossed from page one devoured this book in one sitting.  It thrilled me, shocked me, captivated me, and made me laugh—often and out loud!  I have a hunch this book is going to be very, very successful and I sure hope Allison Burnett is adapting it for a screenplay.

The voice of Katie Kampenfelt is so absolutely authentic that it is hard to believe this book is a work of fiction…and that’s a good thing.  Katie is impulsive, witty, naïve, wanton, intelligent and unapologetic.  She decides to defer college for a year to “discover her bliss” and documents that time in a blog…an anonymous blog.  The result is a hauntingly, painfully honest (and hysterically sarcastic) window into her soul.

There’s a broad appeal to Undiscovered Gyrl, it is enjoyable on the surface as YA fiction and yet profound enough to become classic coming of age literature.  This book is funny and entertaining, relatable and relevant.  It flawlessly captures the usual struggles of youth magnified today by the internet, texting, and the other “always available” technologies of this generation.  At a deeper level, it is frank and inadvertently cautionary without being preachy or artificial in any way.  There is one thing that bothered me about this book that unfortunately I cannot discuss without being a spoiler.  I will just say that without that one part, the book is superb, and with it, it’s still a great read with one unfortunate and annoying blemish. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book it is supremely clever and extremely readable.  Bravo, Allison Burnett!

Buy Undiscovered Gyrl from Amazon
Buy Undiscovered Gyrl from an Indie Bookstore
Buy Undiscovered Gyrl from Powell’s Books

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