Blaze (or Love in the time of Supervillains) - Laurie Boyle Crompton

Titel: Blaze (or Love in the time of Supervillains)
Author: Laurie Boyle Crompton
Series: -
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 322
Publication Date: 2013
Source: ARC from publisher





Blaze is tired of spending her life on the sidelines, drawing comics and feeling invisible. She's desperate for soccer star Mark to notice her. And when her BFF texts Mark a photo of Blaze in sexy lingerie, it definitely gets his attention. After a hot date in the back of her minivan, Blaze is flying high, but suddenly Mark's feelings seem to have been blasted by a freeze-ray gun, and he dumps her. Blaze gets her revenge by posting a comic strip featuring uber-villain Mark the Shark. Mark then retaliates by posting her "sext" photo, and, overnight, Blaze goes from Super Virgin Girl to Super Slut. That life on the sidelines is looking pretty good right about now...

***

I can’t quite decide what I think about Blaze (the character, not the entire book). She is incredibly naïve and doesn’t listen to anybody, even if those people only want what’s good for her. She doesn’t know how to say no to Mark and she lets him cross her lines over and over again. I just don’t get it! But then again – she is a teen trying to find her boundaries and she has been an outsider forever and suddenly a very hot guy gives her a lot of attention – she is probably bound to be confused. I just get a little tired of her jumping through hoops for him and suspecting nothing.

I HATE Blaze's friends. Well, I hate Amanda and dislike Terri. Amanda is absolutely awful! She doesn’t care for anyone but herself and she is so mean toward Blaze (Seriously, who takes a picture of a friend in sexy lingerie and send it to that persons crush? That should end a friendship!) I don’t really care for Blaze's mom either. She is so immature and she shouldn’t be blaming Blaze for her husband leaving her. I’m very glad she isn’t a bigger part of the story!

I adore Josh and his friends, the soccer cretins. They are so much fun and typical young teenage boys. They are partly the reason for the last star. The other part of the reason is the humor. This book is so much fun! The comic book references fit perfectly and Blaze, Josh and the soccer cretins are hilarious.

Blaze grows a lot through the book, but it takes a long time. It isn’t till the end that she learns something. The book is about trusting yourself and knowing your identity but it is also about bullying both online and in person. It was a great read and I’m sure I will enjoy more books from Laurie Boyle Crompton in the future!
I read an ARC and therefor didn’t have the pleasure of seeing the drawings which will be in the finished copy. I did see some of them on other blogs and they were great!