Book Title: Putting Boys on the Ledge
Author: Stephie Davis
Publisher: Dorchester
ISBN: 0-8439-5328-4
Length: 170 pages
Quote: "The Ledge isn't a real place. It's an emotional place...Instead of you feeling all bad about yourself because a boy blows you off, you're supposed to somehow get him to fall madly in love with you, and then you can ignore him, and then he gets all bummed and goes out onto The Ledge."
Given that high school boys tend to be immature enough to "blow off" girls, it would be refreshing to read more real girl-power novels about high school girls who ignore boys. Our heroine could concentrate on doing worthwhile things, ignoring her hormones, all the way through college; by that time at least one boy would be sanely "in love" with her, and then she could appreciate him, or them. In real life this does occasionally happen.
In the world of novels written for teenagers, it's not allowed to happen. Publishers think that only girl-gets-boy romances will sell to this age group. If a girl does manage to say no to "dating" in the sense of "go to McDonald's, give some half-grown troll some sort of sexual gratification, pretend he's given you some so that he'll go away, then get depressed because there ought to be more to life," the publishers of teen romances don't want to know about it.
Putting Boys on the Ledge was published under the imprint "Smooch," so no points for guessing that our heroine, Blueberry, is going to be smooching some high school boy by the end of the book. In the interest of preserving some suspense I won't tell you whether it will be Heath or Colin, but will observe that the names of the main characters are the most original parts of most romance novels.
Recommended...primarily as comedy for adults.
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