Nov 7, 2011

A La Carte

A La Carte by Tanita Davis follows Lainey who dreams of being the first Vegetarian African American TV Chef.  Lainey's mother owns a restaurant and Lainey loves being in the kitchen and creates recipes (included in the story) whenever she has a problem.  Lainey however, is far from perfect.  She has no real friends except a childhood friend Sim who takes advantage of her friendship and then runs away.

I had real problems with this book because the main character was so unlikeable.  Lainey had no friends except for Sim who was obviously a seedy character who was using her and then runs away.  Lainey steals from her mother and then lies to her about Sim's disappearance which he apparently had to do because his father was so terrible (although his terribleness seemed not to be that he was abusive but that he had high expectations).  Lainey finally opens up to a friend and finally is able to see how Sim was using her and is able to make another friend.  I did finish the book and it was a quick read (and I've been in a mood lately where I've been quitting books half way through).  I would not however recommend it because of how pathetic and unlikeable the main character was.

Appropriateness:  This is a good book to show how some people will take advantage and pretend to care to get things from you.  There is a bit of romance but no sex.  There is talk of drugs and alcohol at a party that Laney does not attend that gets out of control and has severe consequences for one of the characters.  I would recommend this book to readers 12+


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