Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant

Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant

Addison Blakely has led what one might say a complicated life. Addison is sixteen, in high school, lost her mom at a young age, and is the daughter of the local small town preacher. Everything she says or does reflects back on her dad and it seems people are always judging. This year has been more difficult than most; a new and intriguing bad boy has moved across the street and a sweet guy in her class has started paying attention to her. Making things more complicated her best friend Claire has been acting more like an enemy than a friend lately.  Thank God (literally), the new foreign exchange student Marta has swooped in to help just when Addison needs it the most. Putting together the school talent show, dealing with boy drama, her dad’s budding romance, and a religious revelation might be more than one girl can handle.

            I really wanted to like Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant. I just couldn’t get into it. All of the characters were too perfect…too put together. Even the “bad or wrong things” weren’t really that bad. The romance in this book was also seriously lacking. I understand that it came second to the true message of the book, but it was hard to believe. The main character Addison seems to be completely in love with the bad boy Wes and they’ve only talked in the street two or three times? The synopsis provided for the book says something about a “cute but arrogant jock” being in the picture. He is only present for about 10 pages.  The quickly deteriorating relationship between Addison and Claire is hard to believe also. Marta the exchange student seems to be too wise and above reproach. I have never heard of a teenager being that “perfect”. I kept wondering when the religious aspect of the book would kick in and it seemed too jammed into the last quarter of the book. I would have preferred at least some mention of it sprinkled throughout the beginning.  The lack of action or rather the lack of anything happening in a large portion of this book could be cut out to make it much shorter. As I was reading I honestly found myself thinking is this book ever going to end?

            After all of the not so good things about this book I did find some aspects I liked. There were several messages at the end of the book that were good. I won’t ruin it and say what it is I didn’t see them coming), but it is something that Christians especially often forget. My favorite characters of were the owner of the coffee café who provided much needed comic relief and Kathy Addison’s teacher. The intentions and premise behind the book were good and intriguing, but were poorly executed. Taking everything into consideration I give this book a 2 1/2 out of 5 STAR rating.

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Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant has approximately 368 pages and is published by Barbour Books. This title will be available on January 1, 2012.