Review: The Oracle of Dating

Book: The Oracle of Dating
Author: Allison van Diepen
Pages: 256
Published: May 1st 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Source: netGalley

No one at Kayla’s school knows she’s the famous Oracle of Dating—the anonymous queen of dating advice, given through her own Web site. Kayla doesn’t even have a boyfriend. Two relationship disasters were enough to make her focus on everyone else’s love life. But then her advice backfires on her own best friend. And Kayla starts to seriously obsess about Jared Stewart—the very cute, very mysterious new guy in school. Suddenly, the teen queen of advice needs her own oracle of dating--and she knows just where to find one...

Okay, so this book really interested me from the minute I heard about it. I was in love with the idea of this book! I wasn't sure how it would go, though I thought Allison van Diepen's other book, Raven, was amazing, because these two are completely different. Luckily, though, I enjoyed this one just as much as Raven!

I liked Kayla from the first page. Her voice was so animated and lively that she really came alive for me. I could so easily identify with her character and put myself in her shoes -- because, let's be honest, pretty much every girl has experienced what she has (minus the Oracle thing, of course), and that makes her so much more connectable. Jared was intriguing and I loved his character from the start, too. He's that classic tough-looking guy who's really a big softy on the inside (well…mostly). I was captivated by Jared and Kayla's scenes -- the tension between them was amazingly shown and when they weren't being all intense-flirty, their scenes were sweet and I loved them. I was rooting from them from the very beginning!

I thought the secondary characters were a little two-dimensional. I didn't really get a sense of their characters and honestly, I thought they were forgettable. It took me a while to keep their names straight, and that doesn't happen often with me. However, the thing I really loved about this book is how genuine the characters are. It's hard to find a book where teenagers act and think and speak like teenagers, real teenagers, not super-unrealistically-mature teenagers. I loved that van Diepen was able to do that with her characters.

So, I mentioned it up there, but I thought the concept of the Oracle of Dating was so much fun. I loved reading those parts about her being the Oracle, and they kept me entertained. The parts with the Oracle, those had the potential to be overused -- the book could have consisted mainly of her website and not nearly enough of her actual life, but the author kept a perfect balance between the two.

That being said, I thought the plot moved a bit quickly at times. Some scenes seemed a bit jumpy, and there were a few parts at the end that just wrapped up a little too nicely and neatly. I was really happy with the end, honestly, but I thought some of the parts could have gone more in depth so they didn't seem so sudden and without reason.

I still really enjoyed this book and I'll definitely be looking out for the second one, which I believe is called The Oracle Rebounds (not sure if that's the final title or not, but that's the one it has now)!

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Cover: Really cute, simple cover! I love the font used and I think the cover really captures the attention of the average teenage girl. I've noticed that my friends really like covers like this, so I think it will make a teenager stop and look twice. Plus, it just has such a cool title!