Review: Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley

Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley
 Published: February 2011

Publisher: HarperTeen

Available: Amazon

Synopsis:

Meet Corrinne. She's living every girl's dream in New York City - shopping sprees at Barney's, open access to the best clubs and parties, and her own horse at the country club. Her perfect life is perfectly on track. At least it was...

When Corrinne's father is laid off, her world suddenly falls apart. Instead of heading to boarding school, she's stripped of her credit cards and shipped off to the boonies of Texas to live with her grandparents. On her own in a big public school and forced to take a job shoveling manure, Corrinne is determined to get back the life she's supposed to be living. She doesn't care who she stomps on in the process. But when Corrinne makes an unlikely friend and discovers a total hottie at work, she begins to wonder if her life B.R. - before the recession- was as perfect as it seemed.

Review: **This review will contain spoilers

Wow. This was no where as good as I'd hoped. I'd seen this as part of a giveaway on the Spring Fling Blog Hop and the description grabbed me as much as the cover. I love Texas romances (so much I even moved to Texas and married a Texan!), and I love sweet romances. This looked and sounded like it would be perfect for me. Instead, I was disappointed and frustrated (and not in a good way).

The book starts off with a preface written by the main character Corrinne, telling us that if we don't  like her at first, to keep reading. Well she was right, at least partly. I didn't like her at the start, but contrary to the suggestion that I would grow to like her I never did. She is selfish, self absorbed, prejudiced, snobby, and an all round b***h. Right up until maybe the last two chapters when she then suddenly realizes what a horrible person she is and makes a last ditch effort to accept the friendship of Kitsy and romantic interest of Bubby. Yes, accept. Because I'm supposed to somehow believe that she actually deserves these things?

The romance angle is way over stated. There is practically no romance to this book. Bubby - yes, apparently that is his name, because every Texas town has a Bubby, right? Gagh! Having lived 10 years in Texas I never meet a Bubby. (I'm ignoring that fact that my sister-in-law calls my husband Bubba, because he absolutely hates it.) Bubby is barely in the story. Corrinne uses him as a stand in date, she ditches him, calls him names, constantly insults him and judges him, and yet he still likes her?! Even Corrinne doesn't understand that and asks him why, to which he responds that she's full of surprises. Uh no, she's not. From the opening page which establishes her as a Blair Waldorf/Paris Hilton wannabe, everything she says and does is exactly as I predicted.

The only thing that kept me mildly interested was Kitsy. I wanted to see if she would finally stand up to Corrinne and her judgmental attitude, but alas, Kitsy is a stereotypical Southern girl with all the right manners and just accepts Corrinne's judgment as her due while fawning over how wonderful Corrinne is.

*Here are the big spoilers,so you are warned*
The ending was a huge disappointment. Heasley seemed to be trying to wrap it up in a way that would be just perfect. Corrinne's father's company magically comes out of the recession and create a wonderful new job for him back in New York, Corrinne gets to go to the exclusive boarding school she's whined about the entire book, she realizes she's been snobby, and she decides to accept and return Bubby's interest in her (even though she's now moving away!). What the hell?! The more I think about it the angrier I get.

There wasn't anything that made me hate this book, and even though I didn't like the main character or the stereotypes displayed, it was well written and I think there will be people who could enjoy the story. Maybe I would have been one of those people if I hadn't gone in believing it was a romance or that by the end I would like Corrinne.