Universal Longings: Book review: Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

So, I kind of feel like this is going to be a half-hearted review. But don't assume it's because I didn't like the book... it's just that the book wasn't really anything special.

Let's go over something: My first experience reading a Sarah Ockler book was in June, when I was house-sitting for my aunt while reading Twenty Boy Summer (I would say I read it while house-sitting, but that seems backward). That book made me cry, made me laugh, and occasionally made me uncomfortable. But I liked it. So then recently, I read Fixing Delilah. I loved that book. I didn't realize until now just how much I loved it, but after comparing it to Bittersweet I can definitely tell you that that one was better. It seemed to have more heart and more endearing characters (what can I say? I'm a sucker for the Boy Next Door who falls in love with the Girl Next Door, a la Lola and the Boy Next Door).

Basically, Bittersweet is about Hudson Avery (sometimes I can get over an awkward main-character name. Sometimes I can't. Unfortunately, Hudson's nickname was "Hud," so this falls into the latter category), former pro-track ice skater who now works at her mom's diner making cupcakes that win the town over. Then business starts going bad, so her mom makes her waitress at the diner. Then she has to help the high school hockey team get better at skating so she can have private ice time without anyone knowing. Then her best friend gets jealous that she's not hanging out with her anymore. Meanwhile, she's torn between Josh Blackthorn-- smart, cute, humble, funny hockey co-captain-- and Will Harper-- cute, confident, [insert third adjective here-- oh wait, there isn't one] hockey co-captain who forgot that he was her first and only kiss up until now.

Okay, so, my problem was this: Hudson is a feisty character. I don't really know how to explain this in light of her actions, but she is. You just know it. And yet, she lets all of these people push her around. She lets her mom make her waitress, because she realizes it's for the good of the restaurant and, thus, for her family. That's fine, but she doesn't have to let her mom's waitress-demanding schedule run her life. As we can see, she's got other things going on, and I find it hard to believe that she couldn't come up with an acceptable lie to get out of waitressing occasionally-- as she lies to her mom about pretty much everything else. Also, she doesn't have to hang out with her best friend constantly. They're together at work, and I don't see why that wasn't enough, seeing Dani knows how much Hudson has going on. She started getting really annoying, when I actually liked her at the beginning of the book. She becomes just another person tugging at Hudson and making her feel like she doesn't know who she is.

And the one person Hudson wants to hang out with because he doesn't have any expectations of her, she keeps him at a distance because she thinks he has a girlfriend. And then she goes and dates Will for the same reason, when obviously she never liked Will as much as she likes Josh. Unnecessary Love Triangles for 300, please. Hudson, now you're just adding to your own stress, when you've got enough people doing that for you.

Now, the ending. Of course, we find out that Josh doesn't have a girlfriend; the girl Hudson thought was his girlfriend was actually, GET THIS, his sister. Mistaking family members for girlfriends! Never done before, ever! However, I did like the other part of the ending. How [spoiler alert] Hudson realizes that she doesn't actually want to live the figure-skating competition life. The whole time she was training for the scholarship competition, I was concerned about that. I actually thought to myself that she didn't really seem to be paying attention to the fact that she'd have to face competition in the form of girls who had been participating in these things their whole lives-- the glam, the unrealistic expectations, all of that. So, um, that was good. And then everything fell into place in true rom-com fashion.

So, here's THE LIST:

Things I liked

-Josh Blackthorn

-Josh and Hudson's easy banter

-BUG (Hudson's genius little brother)!!

-The role of Kara, Hudson's ex-best friend-from-figure-skating, in everything that happened

-How much the hockey team grew to love Hudson (and how she calls them her hockey boys)

Things that were too cliche:

-The love triangle

-The "Oh, Abby is your sister? I thought she was your girlfriend" thing.

-Dani being just another person who turns on Hudson

-Hudson blaming herself for her parents' divorce. Come on.