Swoon at Your Own Risk
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Swoon at Your Own Risk
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3.65 of 5 stars
You’d think Polly Martin would have all the answers when it comes to love—after all, her grandmother is the famous syndicated advice co... read full description

reviews

Mar 31, 2010
Rachael rated it: 5 of 5 stars
After a year of boy craziness and subsequent heartbreak, Polly Martin swears off boys for the summer. Of course, that’s much easier said than done since the exes keep appearing everywhere. There’s Sawyer, ex number three, who just happens to be her supervisor at her summer job, then Jack, ex number two, who does to the same parties as her, and then there’s Xander, but he’s not an ex even if he keeps breaking Polly’s no-boys rule by always showing up where she works. Thank goodness Polly’s grandm More...
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Sep 21, 2010
Heather rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Every once in a while I come across a book that just clicks for me. This was one of those books. Sydney Salter is a local Utah author I met at Authorpalooza on Saturday and I picked up a signed copy of her book. I sat down to read it and less than 24 hours later I was done with a smile on my face. Swoon At Your Own Risk is a light, fun read that in my opinion is perfect for teens. Polly, the main heroine is looking for a little bit of distraction from her not-so-perfect life and tries out quite More...
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Feb 20, 2010
Shanyn rated it: 2 of 5 stars
I expected to connect with the main character (Polly), because the story is based solely on her - no flipping view points or other plots. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Yes, the characters had their good moments - Polly's mom often had me laughing out loud, in fact. But I didn't feel that pull for Polly - I wanted things to go well for her but I didn't feel connected to her, at all.

It's a fun story, but I generally like to be rooting for one of the characters (or at More...
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Jan 26, 2010
Peace Love rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Since this is an ARC, I decided not to say anything about the plot but to just reflect on what I read :), well ok I will not divulge too much info.

I absolutely love this book. The first two chapters wasn't all that and I got worried that I might give this a low rating but then grandma shows up, and then Polly she started enumerating her pathetic attempt into finding herslef in dating the wrong guys, and then another situation and then another and the next thing I know, I am reading q More...
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Apr 14, 2010
Gaby rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Polly tiene 5 ex-novios, uno detrás del otro. Sayer, el ex #2, la dejo porque no era lo suficientemente profunda, ex #1 termino con ella porque ella no acepto acostarse con el, incluso cuando el ya tenia una habitación de hotel alquilada. Ex #3 es bueno besando…..y así sucesivamente. Es por eso que decide no tener mas chicos, concentrarse en su trabajo, ganar dinero para intentar ir a la universidad, y volver a juntarse con su mejor amiga. Pero todo eso es mas complicado de lo que esperaba, en e More...
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Nov 14, 2011
Nicole(i~heart~books!!!) rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This book is hilariously funny... <3 Polly and Xander:) Who would have thought avoiding boys is utterly hopeless and impossible...
This book made me laugh, cry, sigh, and look for hot boys.. haha juz kidding... in this book, I've learned that there are decent guys somewhere in the world, not juz immature, stupid, jerk, guys... wuld u blame becuz that's how guys at my age acted.. always playing blackshot and such perverting thoughts... How disgusting, right?-.-
Anyways, this book More...
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May 01, 2010
Cinnamon rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Ahhh...summer romance. What joy.

Wait, what am I saying? Summer romance rarely ends well, especially when you can't decide who to be romantic about!

SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK by Sydney Salter was a very cute and quite funny read. Following Polly (aka Pollywog) through her summer adventures in romance, this book gives us a cute tale that is both funny and at times a bit moving as well. Part of what makes this book such a good read is the format it's written in. From the fir More...
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Apr 18, 2010
Alea rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I LOVE LOVE LOVED Sydney Salter's My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters so I just knew I had to give Swoon At Your Own Risk I try. Unfortunately this book didn't quite do it for me like her previous one did.

I think this is rare for me but I just didn't really like the main character Polly. She wasn't a bad person by any means but I don't know if she wasn't believable to me. I can't pinpoint it but I didn't really like her. Same goes for her mother and grandmother who were sort of a More...
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Mar 27, 2010
Allison rated it: 4 of 5 stars
What a fun summer read! When I started Swoon At Your Own Risk, I didn't know what to expected because I hadn't read Sydney Salter's first book, but I really enjoyed this one. Even though Polly is by no means a perfect main character (in fact, she's rather flawed and sometimes flat-out unlikeable), I liked her. At times her selfishness appalled me, but I liked watching her grow and change throughout the novel.

The secondary characters were so fun too! Miss Swoon was funny and eccentric More...
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Mar 02, 2010
Eleni ( La Femme Readers ) rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Swoon At Your Own Risk was a fun, well-written novel with a few exceptions. I enjoyed the storyline but I have mixed feelings about Polly, at first she came off as a sarcastic, selfish and boy crazy person. She always needed a guy in her life. No matter how many times she tried to stay away from them, she failed miserably. I didn't really get to know Polly until the middle of the book. Her defense mechanism was her sense of humor, it literally was an emotional shield. Even her best friend, Jane More...
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Dec 21, 2011
Shannon rated it: 2 of 5 stars
I thought I would like this a lot more than I did. The idea of this girl working at a Wild West themed waterpark seemed ridiculously amazing to me. Who wouldn't want to read something so odd? Unfortunately, I couldn't really get into this book. I found myself setting it down a lot and choosing instead to netflix some Dean Winchester. While it got a little bit better towards the last 1/4 of the book, it still never sucked me in like I'd hoped.

One of my main issues was Polly. I don't w More...
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Dec 02, 2011
Anne rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Polly has sworn off boys after a year of disastrous dating, leaving a string of ex-s behind her. You might think that she would be better at this whole dating thing since her grandma is a romance advice columnist, but no. Now Polly is working for the summer at a water park where ex #3 is her supervisor. Most of her issues stem from dad's absence in their lives since the divorce as well as mom's financial struggles. There are also conflicts with best friend Jane and a crush on the hot neighb More...
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Jun 15, 2010
Lindsey rated it: 3 of 5 stars
It was a good book in the aspect that this girl was able to help her family conquer some hard times. But she was just a freakin hormonal teenager, and the way she handled relationships and described what she wanted from some were a bit too blah for me. Polly just annoyed me sometimes. Like I said though, she IS a teenager. Things also were never what she thought them to be. You get a perspective in this book from a teenager, and sometimes the lingo and basic story plot/wordings in this book kind More...
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Jul 06, 2010
Lilibeth rated it: 5 of 5 stars
The multitude of ex's hasn't really sunk in for Polly yet. When she gets stuck with a job with ex #2 Sawyer, she finally sees how dating the most active people in her junior year might just backfire. Active meaning that, for each one of them she's had to do something in order to keep up with what they were interested in, and mold herself to keep them interested in her. Having enough with the male species for a while, Polly wishes to disconnect herself from the testosterone population. Being focu More...
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Dec 30, 2009
Princess Bookie rated it: 4 of 5 stars
"My Thoughts: We meet Polly aka Pollywog who has too many ex-boyfriends. She has went through guys f...more My Thoughts: We meet Polly aka Pollywog who has too many ex-boyfriends. She has went through guys fast mostly because she adjusts her life to match theirs. If they like cars, she likes cars. We also meet a few of her ex-boyfriends and the ex-boyfriend who drives her bonkers named Sawyer. Polly has a summer job at the pool with Sawyer and everyday he makes her life rough bossing her ar More...
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May 08, 2011
Kristy rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Street corner TBR Challenge
May pick #2 per Tina!

I can definitely see a lot of people liking this one, teenage girls in particular. I think I would have gobbled this up and absolutely loved it back when I was in high-school. It was an okay read, I felt it a little long for it's genre. It's predictable, but has some really fun moments. Like I said, it's an OKAY read....

Polly is having quite the year with bad relationships... 4 or 5 guys in less than a year and now she More...
2 comments like (5 people liked it)
Jan 22, 2011
Izzy rated it: 3 of 5 stars
To be honest, I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would, but I think it's more something about me rather than about the book. This was a cute read with a swoon-worthy guy, as the title promises, but I just didn't find myself getting too much into it. I've read some very positive, glowing reviews for this, so I think it's just me. I tend not to like chick lit very much unless it's "different" (e.g. I loved Anna and the French Kiss).


Polly was hard for me to More...
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May 30, 2011
BookWhisperer rated it: 2 of 5 stars
As a book blogger I hate having to give a review for a book that has proven to be a struggle. Swoon at your own risk, is just that kind of struggle that I hate to encounter. I believe that I should give a book at least 100 pages before making any decisions about what I think of the book as a whole. After giving this book that opportunity I was still at a loss to find my groove. Per the description this would be a book that I would typically read and enjoy, but I found that I this book is lacking More...
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Jun 24, 2010
Emma rated it: 5 of 5 stars
You could say Polly Martin wrote the book on love--specifically on why to avoid it all costs. Despite all of the sensible advice from her grandmother's syndicated advice column Miss Swoon and the cautionary tale of her own mother's divorce, Polly's junior year was filled with dating disaster after disaster. After disaster. And a few more disasters besides.

Polly has learned her lesson and is trying to focus on making her life a boyfriend free zone and making up to her best friend for More...
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Feb 18, 2011
Kelsey rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Swoon At Your Own Risk was a fun and cute read. This was my first book by Sydney Salter, but it will definitely not be my last. I went into the book headfirst, not knowing what to expect. I finished it in a couple of days and my reaction was: loved it! Swoon At Your Own Risk was witty and enjoyable, with deeper messages embedded in the pages. Polly learned a lot about herself and others throughout the novel and by the end of the book she’d changed a lot. I really liked all the characters. Polly More...
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Jun 28, 2010
Ashley rated it: 2 of 5 stars
In all fairness, this book is definitely worth 2.5 or possibly even 3 stars. It's a fun, summer read, and it has some interesting characters and situations in it. Overall, though, the book was just all over the place. I guess life is messy and complex, but I don't like it when a book feels like it has too much crammed into it. Xander turned out to be really lovely, but I felt like a lot of his poetry/observations (more the ones toward the beginning of the book) were a bit pretentious. Polly/Xand More...
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Apr 18, 2010
Amber rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not even for sure how to start this review. I liked this book, but it had its flaws. I think it should have possibly went through another round of edits before being released. One minute I would find myself completely engrossed and the next minute, I'd be struggling to get to the next chapter.

While slightly annoying at times, Polly was overall a character I grew to love. Sometimes she would crack me up and other times I just shook my head. She's a girl who really doesn't have her More...
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May 03, 2010
Mariah rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book was really cute! It made me long for lazy summer days, and summer romance. This was a really fluffy novel with deeper plot lines than are made obvious when you first pick up the book.


Polly was your typical teenage girl trying to find herself. She had become such a hodgepodge of different interests from all of the guys she had dated. This book was about her finding new love and learning not to compromise herself. Polly's grandma (Miss Swoon) was really funny and made m More...
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Apr 22, 2010
Keyona rated it: 3 of 5 stars
From the blog:


Polly has a lot of Daddy issues in this book. She's looking for the attention her father doesn't give her from teenage boys. When Polly doesn't have a boyfriend she feels empty. Every time she gets a boyfriend she becomes who she thinks they want her to be. Whatever they're into, suddenly she's into. This leaves her doing many activities just to impress them. In turn, she loses herself and is only defined by who she's dating at the moment.

Unfortunately More...
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Sep 25, 2010
Kathryn rated it: 3 of 5 stars
To swoon or not to swoon, that has always been Polly Martin's biggest dilemma. She tends to go through guys like water--or rather they tend to go through her because they think she's too shallow or too cold or too changeable. But whatever, it's not like guys stick around long enough to do any good.

With her dad gone, her mom working two jobs to pay the bills and her grandmother's advice column getting cut, Polly desperately needs her job as a life guard at the kiddy water park to pay More...
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Apr 14, 2010
Stephanie rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I liked Swoon at Your Own Risk but I didn't really, really like it - it was good enough for me to enjoy thoroughly. I thought the plot was interesting but kind of cliche in some areas. I feel like there are always books about the main girl protagonist who decides to swear off boys and then hilarity ensues. Like, look at the Lonely Hearts Club. Isn't that the same thing or at least really similar?

Anyway, besides the plot, I enjoyed the characters. I actually didn't like Polly much bec More...
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Jan 25, 2010
Sara rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved Sydney Salter's sophmore novel, SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK! I was pulled in to Polly's story quickly and didn't want to the novel to end! While, at first glance, SWOON simply addresses the common theme of a girl with "daddy issues" turning to boys to deal with her problems, it is also a fun novel with hilarious dialogue.

I wasn't sure if I would really connect with or like Polly, but I was a bit attached to her by the end of the novel. She was spunky, sarcast More...
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Feb 26, 2011
Kristi (The Story Siren) added it
I loved Salter's My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, so I was beyond ecstatic to read her newest novel Swoon at Your Own Risk. Unfortunately, Swoon at Your Own Risk wasn't quite as impressive.

I liked this one... but didn't love it. The plot sounded really interesting, but there was just too many boys... not exactly copacetic. I could possibly understand Polly 'dating' a handful of guys durning a single school year, but having them all be her 'boyfriends'... that was just too mu More...
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Apr 30, 2010
Katie rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Swoon At Your Own Risk is beyond cute. I loved it. After I started it I couldn't put it down. I had to keep reading it and I finished in a very short amount of time, something I haven't been doing a lot of lately. I juust had to put everything aside and read. =]

Polly was hilarious. She made me laugh so much but that wasn't the only side to her. She was scared and vulnerable and it led to her making a lot of bad choices when it came to guys. She was trying to change her ways b More...
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Feb 11, 2010
Yan rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I loved Salter’s debut novel, My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, I kid you not. I bawled like a 5 year-old for some reason. I had a huge grin on my face that my mom had to stop and ask why I was happy. When I find a novel that good I stalk the author. Seriously I’m like a rabid dog that will not let go until the owner of said leg dies…or something (preferably the something).

Swoon at Your Own Risk doesn’t deliver the initial love I had. My expectation bar was high, but the jump More...
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