You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis

Today's blog is going to be about You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis, but before we get to that, I entered Desiderium into a First Five Pages Workshop, in which a couple of authors and anyone reading the blog can provide constructive feedback. If you have any interest in following along, you can read all about it here. I've been focusing on the revisions for the first five pages via a different YA publishing community, so I'm hoping this workshop will be just what it needs to grab the attention of an agent. Cross your fingers for me. Now, down to business...

You Have Seven Messages Summary:
It's been a year since Luna's mother, the fashion-model wife of a successful film director, was hit and killed by a taxi in New York's East Village. Luna, her father, and her little brother, Tile, are still struggling with grief.

When Luna goes to clean out her mother's old studio, she's stunned to find her mom's cell phone there—charged and holding seven unheard messages. As Luna begins to listen to them, she learns more about her mother's life than she ever wanted to know . . . and she comes to realize that the tidy tale she's been told about her mother's death may not be the whole truth.

You Have Seven Messages Review:
From the very first page of this book I fell in love with the author's voice. The male author did an excellent job of portraying the 15-year-old female character, and gave her a very unique, authentic voice. I'm not usually drawn to books about loss, but the original spin on the premise caught my attention. I thought Lewis did an excellent job of creating very real characters and did an excellent job transitioning Luna into adulthood despite the fact that she was only 15.

My only complaint about the book is the love interest. All of a sudden Oliver stops talking to Luna and starts going out with her old best friend, who coincidentally is just trying to get his attention to prove a point. And then all of a sudden he realizes the friend was a fake and wants to get back together with Luna. I liked the forgiveness aspect of the situation, but I thought Luna was too quick to jump back into things with Oliver. I would definitely recommend this book, and it definitely doesn't hurt that it's such a quick read.