Cupid Cloud Hop Sweetheart Review: Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo

Today I’m excited to host a review for WinterHaven's Cupid Cloud Hop. This week WinterHaven and a great group of Cupid Cloud Hop bloggers are posting Sweetheart Reviews. I chose a YA book that has LOVE in the title.

My Sweetheart Book choice is Love and Other Perishable Items 
by Laura Buzo.  

A wonderful, coming-of-age love story from a fresh new voice in YA fiction.

'Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to The Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you the good oil. Right? And just so you know, I'm open to all kinds of bribery.'

From the moment 15-year-old Amelia begins work on the checkout at Woolworths she is sunk, gone, lost...head-over-heels in love with Chris. Chris is the funny, charming, man-about-Woolies, but he's 21, and the 6-year difference in their ages may as well be 100. Chris and Amelia talk about everything from Second Wave Feminism to Great Expectations and Alien but will he ever look at her in the way she wants him to? And if he does, will it be everything she hopes?

My Thoughts
"I am Chris, your friendly staff trainer. You’ll be with me for three hour shifts. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei. And I will give you the good oil. Right?"

I don’t even know where to begin with this book. I loved it...let’s start with that. It made me think about a lot of things...there’s another point to offer. But, there’s just so much that makes up this story and to try and dissect it would just be criminal. I had no clue what to expect with Love and Other Perishable Items, so to say I was pleasantly surprised is a huge understatement.

This book revolves around fifteen year old Amelia who gets an afterschool job at the local supermarket and manages to meet and fall head over heals for her twenty-one year old co-worker/trainer Chris. Yes, train wreck waiting to happen, but as everything was unfolding, truths were being revealed, emotions were being laid out, and hearts were being broken, there was a part of me, albeit small part because of their age difference that really wanted this train to make it safely to the station. You’ll have to read the book to find out if it did.

I’m proud of Amelia for how she handles herself throughout the book. She’s ten times more mature than I ever was at her age, and I enjoyed reading that. She’s honest, angry about a lot of things, but hopeful and determined to move forward. Grant it, she makes a few mistakes here and there, but how she recovers and deals with the mess had me clapping enthusiastically and becoming a fan of hers. One of the final scenes that involved her not going to a certain somewhere, I was wooting and cheering for her because it took a lot of restraint to just leave bad enough alone. Loved her!

Now Chris, what can I say about him that my favorite quotes below won’t already reveal? I loved his perspective that he chose to share in the form of journal entries. He’s funny as all get out and his honesty made me just want to hand him a twinkie and hug him... after he eats the twinkie of course. He knows what he has going for him, but for obvious reasons chooses to focus on what sucks in his life. For example, he says:

"I’m young; I’m healthy; there is a roof over my head, food on the table, heat in the house; I have friends; I have access to tertiary education; I live in a safe city with clean beaches – and I’m miserable most of the time. I spend most of my time massaging my temples or fuming about a range of grievances. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to wrap up now so I can watch the patch of sunlight on my bedroom wall fade as the sun slowly sets, casting my room in darkness."

Woah! Deep!

So when you pair up angry Amelia and unsatisfied Chris, flavor it with endeering moments, fun conversations and honest journal entries and letters, you’re going to get a story that moves you, makes you smile, causes you to shake your head in frustration and leave you with a sense of wanting an epilogue that glimpses into their lives two or three years down the road. Loved their journey and I’d travel outback with them any day!

4 Snowflakes

WinterHaven Books is hosting a giveaway for 3 YA Contemporary Books as part of the Cupid Cloud Hop festivities. Be sure to fill out the rafflecopter for a chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To see who else is on the tour, you can go to our Cupid Cloud Hop page for a list of participating blogs.