Animal Attraction: 11/18/08

Animal Attraction by Jamie Ponti is a young adult romance set in the fictional town of Ruby Beach Florida. Jane is trying to have one last summer of fun before her senior year of high school. The only problem: she has to work two jobs to repay her parents for her "new to her" car.

Jane is a swimmer so her summer job choices are simple: swim coach to beginning swimmers at the local club and Mermaid at the water park. Unfortunately if she's to get a sports scholarship to USC, she can't be a Mermaid. Instead, she ends up being one of the park critters: a beaver.

I'm not really spoiling anything. Those two paragraphs sum up the first chapter of the book. The rest of the book follows Jane through her two jobs and the uneasy task of managing the two men in her life, Alex, a seventeen year old rich boy hunk who is scared of water and Grayson, a fellow park mascot.

To survive all the demands on her life, Jane compartmentalizes herself. During the swim lessons with Alex she's Bikini Jane. When she's at the park she's Plain Jane. At home she's just Jane. Of course even with careful planning things go awry; that's life.

Throughout the book and the elaborate schemes, Jane remains a likeable and believable heroine. Either of her two potential boyfriends are charming and convincing good matches for her. The romance could have gone either way and Animal Attraction would have been just as delightful.

Since this book was published in 2005, Jamie Ponti has had two more young adult books published: Prama (2008) and Sea of Love (Dec. 2008). Both are books I would love to read and review for this blog based on my enjoyment of Animal Attraction. If you haven't read Animal Attraction and are looking for something light and entertaining to read, pick up a copy!

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