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I Think I Love You

Allison Pearson

3.11 · Rating details · 3,621 ratings · 802 reviews

"He had thirty million fans, but he was mine. How could I be sure? The understanding in his eyes told me so. Oh, those eyes. They were deep green pools you could pour all your longing into..."

Who was your first crush? ...more

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Hardcover, 357 pages

Published 2010 by Chatto & Windus

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Mar 13, 2011 elizabeth rated it did not like it

Hello World, there's a book that I'm reading/ Come on it's Crappy!

Ugh- it started out well enough- very evocative of adolescence with an interesting Welsh setting. Though sometimes the dialog felt forced, as though some characters were just setting for a "spike." But everything went majorly pear-shaped in the second half. The author took a character I had cared about and made her deeply unappealing. She also fell into the "talking heads" trap where there's no real action- just people yammering a ...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Cathy Zahner rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I listened to this on audio CD, which provided the wonderful Welsh and British accents that really enriched the story.
The first half of the book describes the extreme crushes on then-teen-idol-David-Cassidy held by a 1970s Welsh teenage girl, Petra, and her friends. By turns humorous and bittersweet, it perfectly chronicles the social angst of trying to "be part of the crowd" as a teenager. The characterization of the manipulative and somewhat nasty leader, the "perfect" Jillian, is spot-on for ...more

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Sep 22, 2017 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fangirl-fandom, historical-fiction, chick-lit, romance

I really liked this mainly because I could relate to Petra and Sharon. Like them, I had unhealthy infatuations with celebrities who have no idea I exist. In fact, I still have these obsessions (I’m still waiting for Tim Lincecum to marry me).

As for the storyline, I liked how it included the perspectives of both Petra and Bill. You got to see two different sides to the David Cassidy mania.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and its insights into fangirl culture circa 1974.

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Oct 30, 2011 Christie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Before I talk about Allison Pearson’s delightful novel, I Think I Love You, I have to talk about David Cassidy. I think it’s important for you to understand my total predisposition to love this book based on my adolescent feelings about David. I LOVED HIM! Oh, I know I wasn’t alone – millions of girls my age loved him. It’s just that I loved him more. And to illustrate the deep personal connection we had, let me tell you about what happened to me in 1995 at the backstage door of the London produ ...more

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May 15, 2011 M rated it it was ok

They say, "write what you know." Personally, while I see why that's a good first step, I have cautioned my students against writing what they know too well - as you are likely to make your reader feel like a third wheel while you're on a date with yourself.
This is one of my main beefs with Pearson's much anticipated and very disappointing (read: LAME-OLA) new novel, I Think I Love You. Allow me to preface my review with the caveat that I have/had no idea who David Cassidy is/was and in fact spen They say, "write what you know." Personally, while I see why that's a good first step, I have cautioned my students against writing what they know too well - as you are likely to make your reader feel like a third wheel while you're on a date with yourself.
This is one of my main beefs with Pearson's much anticipated and very disappointing (read: LAME-OLA) new novel, I Think I Love You. Allow me to preface my review with the caveat that I have/had no idea who David Cassidy is/was and in fact spent the first twenty pages thinking she meant David Hasselhoff. The title certainly didn't tip me off; I didn't even know that was the name of a song. I also never suffered from teen idolatry; in fact I think that kind of went the way of lava lamps and avocado colored kitchens. Therefore perhaps a lot of what made this book relatable to people didn't work for me as a product of my own generation (and more on that later) but I think the book was bad, regardless, either way. I also want to say (and I will get to the review soon, I promise) that I did some research (ala wikipedia) on this Cassidy dude and girls, what is the deal?? He looks like a girl! And after hitting up Rhapsody for some of his tunes I gotta say, I get it even LESS.
So anyway, this all might contribute to why this book left me cold. ITILY centers around two parallel stories - that of Petra, young pubescent who is madly in love with Cassidy during his reign in the 70s (thank you, Wikipedia, for enlightening me as to why the concert featured in the novel would be so important - a girl actually died from a stampeded of hormone crazed teens) wants nothing more than to run off with him, and then there is the story of Bill, an older man whose first post BA job in "journalism" is posing as David to write letters to the fevered girls who read these letters like their Bible.
Obviously, the two will meet, at some point, and obviously, the real David versus the David of the pages will prove some sort of conflict that has some kind of cosmic and ontological significance.
The thing of it is is that Pearson very obviously drew from her own experiences as a screaming, weeping teen to write this novel and I kept feeling like this novel was a love letter to her former self - it was too real to be imaginative, too personal to be accessible. And while some might say it is accessible to those who were shrieking at Cassidy, I then ask, does writing only achieve its purpose to an intended audience or is writing meant to transcend our own experiences and be accessible to if not all, then most? When I reviewed that Marly and Me book, rather scathingly, I was told off by a number of people who said, if you hate dogs, then why bother reading/expecting to like a book about dogs? Maybe. But couldn't I expect a book to be so well done that the content and my relationship therein is somewhat irrelevant?
Aside from that, the book (while having the occasional funny line, though paling in comparison to the much funnier I Don;t Know How She Does It, and startling insight as to the ins and outs of teen cliques and how we would even sell out our best friend to earn a smile from the queen bee) followed every far fetched, cliched romantic comedy chick lit formulaic yuckiness and spun way out of the orbit of reality.
Readable? Yes. Good? No. ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 michelle rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish, 2011-books

I expected more from this book because I enjoyed I Don't Know How She Does It. Unfortunately, "I think I love You" was so bad that I only got to about page 100. At that point, I made the decision that there were too many good books out there to waste my time on this one.

The basic premise, in the first 100 pages, is that young Petra and her friends are obsessed with David Cassidy. They are also confronted by the mean girl, clique-ish behavior of young girls. Petra is trying desperately to fit in ...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, vine-program

It's 1974 and Petra and her friends are all "in love" with singer David Cassidy. Petra is the ultimate Cassidy fan, making collages of pictures of the singer, subscribing to his fan magazine and knowing all there is to know about David. Petra hopes that someday all this knowledge may come in useful should she ever meet David and the two fall hopelessly in love.

One of the biggest sources of Petra's knowledge is a David Cassidy fan magazine. And while the letters from fans appear to be responded t It's 1974 and Petra and her friends are all "in love" with singer David Cassidy. Petra is the ultimate Cassidy fan, making collages of pictures of the singer, subscribing to his fan magazine and knowing all there is to know about David. Petra hopes that someday all this knowledge may come in useful should she ever meet David and the two fall hopelessly in love.

One of the biggest sources of Petra's knowledge is a David Cassidy fan magazine. And while the letters from fans appear to be responded to by Cassidy, it's really Bill writing the responses. He's a college graduate, trying to break into the rock and roll journalism scene whose taken a detour to the Cassidy magazine to pay the bills.

Bill is tasked with coming up with a Cassidy questionnaire contest. The prize: a trip to L.A. to visit the set of the Partridge Family. And of all the people out there, Petra is most suited to win.

The first half of "I Think I Love You" is a coming of age story about Petra and her friends. The story contrasts Petra's love and obsessiveness about Cassidy with Bill's reaction to his job. The two both know more about Cassidy than most, but seeing how each reacts to having such a fount of knowledge is intriguing. (Bill hides what he does from his girlfriend for fear of her thinking less of him.)

Were it not for the hook of the Cassidy obsession, "I Think I Love You" might not be as entertaining as it is. Petra's relationship with her friends and family is intriguing, especially given that her mother doesn't really understand or support Petra's interest in the pop music star.

The second half of the story finds Petra in 1998, facing her mother's funeral and her husband walking out on her. Going through her mother's things she finds out that she actually won the contest in 1974 but that her mother hid this from her. Petra must come to terms with that as well as her own relationship with her mother and her husband.

As I said before, without the Cassidy hook, this novel wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as it is. Anyone who's ever had a youthful obsession with something or someone will identify with young Petra. And those who have looked back on our youthful loves will identify with the older Petra of the second half of the book. ...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Sue Smith rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

Well, this book was a scream let me tell you!! I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish and it made me laugh out loud more than once. It hit on all those teenage angst moments - boys and puberty, mean girls at school and a demanding mother... self imposed expectations and limitations and how we see ourselves with all those insecurities clouding the mirror, all done to the music of the times to set the moods - and Allison Pearson made it all quite funny! Painfully funny at times - and down ri ...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Stacey rated it really liked it

Delightful read. I really enjoyed how the book was divided in 2 parts. Who doesn't remember their crush :) ...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Breann rated it really liked it

It took me a little while to get in to this story. I abandoned it earlier this summer when I couldn't connect with the mindset of the pre-teen Petra who narrates the first 1/3 of the book. After listening to a repeat of interview with Allison Pearson on Fresh Air a few weeks ago I picked it up again and stuck with it. I'm so glad I did, there is some really beautiful prose in this story. While the plot seeks to examine the phase of teenage obsession that so many girls go through, I found Pearson It took me a little while to get in to this story. I abandoned it earlier this summer when I couldn't connect with the mindset of the pre-teen Petra who narrates the first 1/3 of the book. After listening to a repeat of interview with Allison Pearson on Fresh Air a few weeks ago I picked it up again and stuck with it. I'm so glad I did, there is some really beautiful prose in this story. While the plot seeks to examine the phase of teenage obsession that so many girls go through, I found Pearson to be at her best when dealing with the complex territory of mother-loss and female group dynamics in the last 2/3 of the book that focuses on the adult Petra. A few favorite passages:

Page 172: "Surely you should be able to call come kind of emergency service and say, "Look, I'm terribly sorry, but I am unable to process these two appalling blows simultaneously. Can I arrange to have one of them taken away?"

Page 182: "It's not always easy to recognize the significant moments in your life as you're living them, but Petra understands this is one of them. To stand in the hall and to realize that neither of her parents will ever answer the phone again. Nor will she need to ever dial their number. Death itself is too big to take in, she already sees that; the loss comes at you in an infinite number of small installments that can never be paid off."

Page 202: "Extreme thinness has become yet another way to compete with one another. Trust girls to get into a contest to make themselves disappear."

Page 210: "Colluding with what other people thought about you felt easier than explaining who you really were."

Page 210: "Getting the emotionally unavailable public schoolboy to become available to her, the girl from Gower, that was what gave her the special jazzed-up feeling, the feeling she craved...where was the thrill in conquering those who wanted you?"

Page 289: "All of the Cassidy girls have entered the age of grief, that time when life's losses start to stack up. Few will have been spared. Count yourself lucky if you get to your mid-thirties without knowing death, divorce, or other species of grief."

Overall a great novel that reads almost like a self-help book. Likely to be most interesting to women who remember or can reconnect with their early teen years or for those parenting girls in this phase of life.

...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Lisa of Hopewell rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-books, read-in-2011

I absolutely LOVED Allison Pearson's first book, I Don't Know How She Does it, so I figured I'd pretty much love anything she writes. Plus, having been a huge fan of the tv show "The Partridge Family" way back in the early '70s, I was sure I had a hit on my hands. Well..yes and no. Mostly YES. I was carried back to childhood reading about Petra and Sharon and their David Cassidy obsession. I could just feel myself back in Uncle Bob and Aunt Jeanie's basement rec room, sitting on my Grandmother's
I absolutely LOVED Allison Pearson's first book, I Don't Know How She Does it, so I figured I'd pretty much love anything she writes. Plus, having been a huge fan of the tv show "The Partridge Family" way back in the early '70s, I was sure I had a hit on my hands. Well..yes and no. Mostly YES. I was carried back to childhood reading about Petra and Sharon and their David Cassidy obsession. I could just feel myself back in Uncle Bob and Aunt Jeanie's basement rec room, sitting on my Grandmother's old couch, across from the dog couch, watching David Cassidy on the black and white portable, "coke-tails" in hand (the cherries eaten before the opening credits passed). I can remember (although I'm POSITIVE he's blocked the memory--it IS cringe-inducing) my brother, much too mature for the show as he was in JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, debating with his best friend Ronny if Danny Bonaduce was or was not one of the best bass players in the country FOR HIS AGE. (They always emphasized that last part.) Pearson's story is of lost love, ships passing in the night and a stolen opportunity set right. To say more would spoil it for the true believers--the grown up "David girls" who WILL want to read this book.

However, like a lot of follow-up-to-a-blockbuster, this book needs better editing. The story gets away from Pearson in places. Not that this ruins it--it just makes it a chore in spots. I find myself hoping we'll get Sharon's story next. Sharon who enjoys her birthday spent eating rissoles and chips and "I get to pick the Blockbuster." Sharon who eschews art school saying "I can always paint at home, can't I?" and then shames us all by doing so and doing it well. Sharon who is perfectly content in an ordinary marriage in an ordinary town in South Wales. We can all learn so much, much more from her story. I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson.

Reading Notes:

Needed some big cuts near the end. Still, I liked it a lot. LOVED Sharon!

I'm now 1/2 way--still good, but I'm getting a little bored with Bill & Petra on the whole. Does bring back, WAY TOO WELL, the emotions of trying to fit in at school and of being 13 in general.

Disc one this morning. So far good. Great narrator. ...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Virginia Hume added it

Readers follow 13-year-old Petra (obsessed with David Cassidy and suffering through the angst of challenging friendships) and 38-year-old Petra, whose husband has left her for a younger woman. We also follow 24-year-old Bill (a frustrated former literature student, now ghost writing David Cassidy letters for a magazine devoted to the teen idol) and Bill in his late 40s.

I liked Petra a good deal, and thought Pearson was painfully accurate in depicting Petra's adolescent hardships. (Who doesn't kn ...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Sara rated it really liked it

What I liked most about this book was Pearson's strong writing style that easily evoked a lot of emotions and memories within my own self. My own obsessions with musical stars when I was 13-15, the "safety" of loving them because they can never love you back, and so on. Pearson easily slipped into that voice of an uncertain teenager who wants so desperately to belong, whether its in the arms of David Cassidy or in a group of four other girls. Running like a thread alongside this story is one abo ...more

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May 30, 2011 Christine rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011-reads

The “inside flap” description of this book seems very light-hearted and frivolous, focusing on a group of teenaged girls and their desperate love for teen heart-throb David Cassidy in the mid 70’s. And yes there are very light moments in the book (and embarrassingly honest, if I remember the 70’s correctly). The book also includes some dark realities with regards to peer pressure, needing to fit in, real boys vs. teen idols, etc. The crescendo comes when the girls sneak away from their homes to ...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Nely rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review

Although David Cassidy was before my time, I do remember having major teen star crushes (most of the guys from Beverly Hills 90210 and NKOTB) as well as running to my nearest supermarket in desperate need for the latest edition of Tiger Beat. So obviously when I read the synopsis for this book I knew I would be able to relate to it in some way.

It's 1974, Petra and Sharon, two 13 year old Welsh girls, are head over heels in love with none other than David Cassidy. Ms. Pearson captures these girl ...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Susan rated it liked it

Shelves: guiltypleasures, modernenglish

This book earns as many as three stars only because its first half was so well done. The second half was, frankly, a mess. Pearson's writing provided a perfect example of how the failure to "show, don't tell" can torpedo what otherwise could have been a charming story. The dialog was sloppy, unconvincing, and most damning, flat. I noticed at least one anachronism. In 1974 we Yanks were not yet world-renowned for being lawsuit-happy. Our lawsuit-mad culture developed later than that--the McDonald ...more

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May 17, 2014 -r- rated it did not like it

Shelves: gave-up-reading

Oh dear Lord this was terrible.

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Jan 11, 2012 Ciara rated it it was ok

Shelves: crummy-chick-lit, read-in-2012

this book started off with some promise. it follows two primary characters, petra & bill. petra is a 13-year-old girl growing up in wales. it's 1974 & she is OBSESSED with david cassidy. she is striving to be integrated into the popular clique at school, which is headed by a queen bee named gillian. petra is not yet confident & popular enough to be gillian's BFF so she has become close to another girl in the group, sharon. all of the girls like david cassidy, but petra & sharon are bonded by the this book started off with some promise. it follows two primary characters, petra & bill. petra is a 13-year-old girl growing up in wales. it's 1974 & she is OBSESSED with david cassidy. she is striving to be integrated into the popular clique at school, which is headed by a queen bee named gillian. petra is not yet confident & popular enough to be gillian's BFF so she has become close to another girl in the group, sharon. all of the girls like david cassidy, but petra & sharon are bonded by their all-consuming obsession. petra is also a cellist & the daughter of a rather stern german mother who does not approve of pop music, so the whole david cassidy thing is kind of covert.

bill is in his early 20s & after graduating from university with a degree in english literature (specializing in the romantic poets), he is having trouble finding work. he finally lands a gig writing for "the ultimate david cassidy magazine". it's a bit fancier than all the other fan rags & its claim to fame is a new personal letter from david cassidy himself in each issue. bill's job is to write these letters. in a rather labored bit of plotting, bill's girlfriend, ruth, loathes david cassidy with an all-consuming passion, so bill "has" to lie to her about what he does for work. he leads her to believe that he writes for a regular rock magazine, interviewing non-embarrassing musicians like john lennon & led zeppelin, but that he writes under a pseudonym so she can never see what he writes. or something. this plotline didn't make a lot of sense to me because you'd think ruth would just be relieved that her boyfriend had a job--any job. & a gig at even an embarrassing teen rag focusing on david cassidy has potential to turn into something bigger & better. are we supposed to think she would have broken up with him if she knew the truth? would that have been so bad, considering that ruth wasn't really a very important character? was her hatred of david cassidy supposed to illustrate bill's shame about his job? i feel like pearson had a thousand other avenues to explore that rather than attaching this manufactured bit of trouble to the bill/ruth dynamic.

anyway, like i said, this first half of the book isn't too bad. i think pearson does a really good job exploring the phenomenon of teen girl celebrity crushes. it all builds up to a big climax in which petra enters "the ultimate david cassidy fan quiz," sponsored by the fan magazine for which bill writes. the grand prize is an all-expenses paid trip to california for the winner & a friend to actually meet david cassidy on the set of "the partridge family". bill's boss asks him to make the quiz really difficult, full of questions that only a real super-fan could answer correctly, to weed out the girls who are taking a time out from their obsession with donny osmond to try to score a free trip to california. petra & sharon spend every spare moment laboring over the quiz...& then gillian invites petra over for some one-on-one time, something that has never happened before. after gillian butters petra up by giving her clothes & inviting her to go to the beach with some boys, she asks to be listed as petra's friend on the quiz entry. petra has been dreaming of the day that gillian would cast her in the role of BFF, but she can't stand the thought of betraying sharon. she stammers & says that she will enter gillian's name instead...but she can't go through it. nonetheless, while the girls are on the train en route to actually see david cassidy live in concert in london, gillian tells everyone that petra said she'd enter gillian instead of sharon & sharon is very hurt.

the concert ends up being a disaster. one girl actually dies from a heart condition or being crushed by the crowd or something. sharon is trampled & breaks a rib. petra gets in ENORMOUS TROUBLE for lying to her mother about the concert. bill is at the concert as well, with a press pass. he even interacts with petra & sharon. he found a lost shoe, & noticed that petra is missing a shoe. it's not the same shoe. he encourages sharon to get medical attention, but the girls insist that they need to stay in case david cassidy resumes the concert.

fast forward 25 years. petra's mother dies on the same day that she finds out that her husband has a mistress. this is where the book begins to completely unravel, because the writing about the modern-day characters is far worse than the writing about the younger characters. when you first read that petra's husband is having an affair, & that she just found out when the mistress called & confessed, you're like, "oh my god, how awful." but through a series of extremely tedious flashbacks, you learn that petra's husband has in fact been cheating on her with all kinds of women for the last thirteen years. he started when their daughter was in the NICU after being born eleven weeks premature. & petra has known about it the whole time. given that, having a mistress call you up & confess wouldn't necessarily seem like THAT big of a deal. i mean, if you're going to tolerate bad behavior for thirteen years, don't expect me to clutch my pearls when it happens again, you know?

but of course we had to get the husband out of the picture for the romance to unfold. petra discovers the letter from "the ultimate david cassidy fan magazine" (they really couldn't have come up with a better title than that?) in her mother's closet. she won the contest all those years before, & her mother didn't tell her because i guess she didn't approve or something. seems like you should have had to get your parent's permission BEFORE entering the contest, but what do i know?

in a fit of despair, petra calls the publishing company that bought the company that had once published "the ultimate david cassidy fan magazine". a woman named marie answers, & the writing starts to get REALLY sloppy. we learn so much about marie. she's hungover. she's young. she's catholic. she's the editor of a lighthearted teen magazine for girls. she is in competition with another magazine for girls that writes about sex & blow jobs. marie prefers her magazine, which respects the youth & naivete of the readership. she has to get to the editorial meeting with "the boss" who runs the whole company & assigns stories & what-not. &...we can all see where this is going, right? amoebas everywhere are like, "oh, bill is totally the guy who runs the company, right? & this whole chapter with marie calling him 'the boss' non-stop is a really lame attempt to throw us off the scent by not using his name." it did not escape MY notice that the entire book is written in omniscient third-person but that we only ever really get inside the heads of petra & bill (save for one sentence that is inside ruth's head, but it was so jarring that i chalk it up to bad editing). so of course this whole chapter in marie's head is shitty writing building up to a climactic reveal that fell totally flat for anyone who actually knows anything about writing. dreadful.

yes, bill runs the company & when marie mentions petra's phone call, he decides that they should award petra the prize now. bring her in for a make-over, fly her & sharon to las vegas to see david cassidy perform one of his revival shows, & then arrange a meeting. write it up for one of the magazines as a kind of fin de siecle nostalgia piece.

&...we all see where THIS is going, right? raise your hand if you don't think bill & petra are going to fall in love. okay, you, that guy who raised his hand...you fail. get out of my classroom.

the writing falls apart completely with the introduction of adult sharon. as a teen, she was written as cheerful & confident. she seemed like a realistic, bubbly, optimistic teenage girl. pearson tries to write adult sharon in pretty much the same way & she comes across as suffering from some kind of brain damage. she routinely jumps up & down in glee, she has loud inappropriate conversations with strangers because she is just so damn lovable, she makes randy off-color jokes in front of people she doesn't know because of her irrepressible joie de vivre...she sounds like she needs some kind of full-time health aid to make sure she doesn't get into the van with the guy brandishing lollipops, seriously. it's ridiculous.

& i really wish pearson would have run the manuscript by an american. she has americans saying things like, "it's about 100 yards down the hallway." no. we don't do the metric system here. the only time americans talk about yards is when they're talking about football. she has an american refer to a "moving walkway". again, no. we call them "sidewalks". she has david cassidy say that he imagines his fame will eventually "pass on". again, not something an american would say. there are just a lot of little mistakes like this & they're jarring.

oh, & the whole bill & petra falling in love thing? just dreadful. i mean...why? just because they're both single? the timeline was fuzzy to me, but it seemed like only about a month had passed since petra's marriage dissolved. i guess we're supposed to think that bill created this false david cassidy character that petra fell in love with as a 13-year-old, so of course she would fall in love with bill as an adult...& there was also a weird belabored bit about petra feeling betrayed when she learns that bill wrote the david cassidy letters she loved so much as a child. um. did she really think they were real? i am reminded of my mom's grandfather telling her, when she was five years old, that if you pick up a newborn calf every day starting on the day that it's born, eventually you'll be able to pick up a full-grown cow. obviously that's not true. instead, there will just come a day that you can't life the calf anymore. but she believed it for over thirty years. realizing the truth & getting MAD about it is the equivalent of petra being informed that david cassidy didn't really write those letters & getting mad about that. it's just stupid.

okay. i'm done. ...more

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Dec 04, 2017 Linda Wilson rated it really liked it

Like many women of a certain age, I found myself with tears streaming down my face when I heard of the death of David Cassidy recently. Allison Pearson was interviewed on the radio that morning, and the things she said about David resonated with me, so I decided to read this book. It is the story of 2 young girls and their crush on the teen idol, but I found it to be so much more. The author managed to convey all that young girl angst about friendship groups, family, and trying to find where you ...more

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Apr 19, 2018 Cherie Kephart rated it liked it

I Think I Love You is an ode to David Cassidy’s enormous stardom and his millions of adoring and obsessive fans. The story fell flat at times; however, it still made me giggle and kept me interested enough in the characters to keep me reading. Although this may not have been her best work, Pearson is a beautiful writer and will assuredly craft more engaging stories for her adoring fans to devour.

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Sep 07, 2018 Ema rated it it was ok

DNfing at 25%/page 101. Strange adolescent fangirling that isn't particularly interesting. The other side of the coin is really interesting, but I'm already concerned and uncomfortable about the age gap. ...more

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Mar 04, 2020 Dgregori rated it really liked it

Five stars for the first half and Three stars for the second half. If you loved an Elvis, Ringo Star, David Cassidy, or Donny Osmond etc. as a preteen and was an insecure but hopeful adolescent, the first half sparkles.

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Nov 14, 2017 Rachel Janke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

RIP David 11/21/2017

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Jul 13, 2011 Laura de Leon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: blogged, lm-book-club, fiction, audiobook

This book did not start out well for me. If I hadn't been reading it for book club, I would not have continued past the first third or so.

The first half of the book takes place when Petra and her friends are young teens, obsessed with David Cassidy, and having the sort of problems that girls in books (and real life) often seem to have-- Bullying, friendship issues, parental problems...

Since the David Cassidy connection didn't speak to me, it just felt like a book I'd read before, with character This book did not start out well for me. If I hadn't been reading it for book club, I would not have continued past the first third or so.

The first half of the book takes place when Petra and her friends are young teens, obsessed with David Cassidy, and having the sort of problems that girls in books (and real life) often seem to have-- Bullying, friendship issues, parental problems...

Since the David Cassidy connection didn't speak to me, it just felt like a book I'd read before, with characters that I didn't particularly want to spend time with.

I think this is a book where listening to the audio really got in the way for me.

First, the narrators voice was not that of a young teen (the Petra sections were first person), which isn't a showstopper, but it didn't help, either.

Second, the book moves between Petra's story and that of Bill (a young journalist writing for the David Cassidy magazine that Petra and her friends pour over), and excerpts from the David Cassidy magazine. Looking at the printed book, I think this would have broken up the experience more-- I would have felt the "Bill" sections gave me more of a break if I hadn't still been hearing Petra's voice. The magazine excerpts had a completely different look, which also would have served as a chance to take a breath, away from Petra and her friends.

I don't think I would have loved this first part in print, but I also don't think I would have been longing to stop reading.

Luckily, the second half worked much better for me. I found it a pleasant enough read, and the narrator's voice fit the adult Petra much better (although since it is no longer first person, it isn't such an issue).

I enjoyed Petra's escape from her life as she gets a chance to meet her childhood crush, reconnects with her childhood friend, and gets a chance to move on from her more recent hurts in her life.

Bill was actually my favorite character in both halves of the book, but even he isn't particularly memorable.

I'm glad it improved for me, but it still won't be one of my favorite books of the year. ...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Trudi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, music-is-the-answer, friendship-women, the-wonder-years, prose-that-sings

I think it's too bad that this book is probably going to get overlooked by a lot of people just because the cover is just so gosh-darned pink -- it looks like a tosser, easily dismissible as frothy, feel-good chick-lit, more fluff than depth, more cheese than ...urm... meat? I know I was on the verge of dismissing it for all these reasons and more; I mean, c'mon!?! David Cassidy? Really people? But thanks to a contagious review here on goodreads, I took a chance and am I glad that I ever did ...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is totally a feel-good novel and I could hardly put it down. In 1973-74 two young girls in Wales, Petra and Sharon, are part of a group of girls completely obsessed with David Cassidy. They collect posters, pictures, facts, and share them obsessively. Petra does most of this at Sharon's house as Petra's mother definitely thinks this music and behaviour are common and not to be exhibited by Petra. She has Petra practicing the cello, aiming for a classical career. So Petra lives two lives, th ...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Michelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: forreview, forpleasure

There were some parts about this book that I enjoyed and some things that went on and on and didn't seem to connect to anything else. Otherwise I would have ranked it higher. I did love all the Welsh terms and the English slang. Because my grandmother's father was from Wales I found that particularly endearing. I also remember the girlhood crushes and Teen Beat magazine (or was it Tiger Beat?) Anyway, we all had crushes on Leif Garrett, Scott Baio, Ralph Macchio, etc, in my generation. Those wer ...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Nicki rated it really liked it

The four stars is for the first half of the book. I just loved teen Petra and her tale of obsession with the pop star! Got to say, David is a little before my own time, and I know the title song "I think I love you" from the Voice of the Beehive's cover which came out when I was a teen. It didn't really matter - you could insert any star you had a crush on and relate to this. Mine at this age was Ben Volpeliere Pierrot (did I even spell that right?! Horrors! 13 year old me would know). Allison P ...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Online Eccentric Librarian rated it really liked it

I really like how this novel was constructed: both the teen view and an adult view of the teen idol craze around David Cassidy in 1974. The story takes place from two perspectives: Bill and Petra. Bill is an adult, a recent graduate, and finds himself thrust into the teen girl idol craze when he has to write articles for the 'Ultimate David Cassidy Magazine'. On the recipient end is Petra - a teen girl in 1who reads the magazine and holds close her love of David Cassidy while dealing with all th ...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Cathe Fein Olson rated it liked it

Having had a major crush on David Cassidy when I was in fifth grade, I ordered this book as soon as heard about it. The story is about about a group of Welsh girls who are David Cassidy obsessed. Two in particular Petra and Sharon feel like they know everything there is to know about him so when they have a chance to meet him by filling out the "Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz" they pore over it for weeks until they finally have every answer. Years later, when Petra's mom dies and Petra is going thr ...more

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Ladies' Home Jour...: Let's Talk About: I Think I Love You - October 2011	1	2	Mar 14, 2012 01:56PM
Fun Read, great for a book club - who was your teen idol?	4	17	Sep 22, 2011 10:29AM

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About Allison Pearson

Allison Pearson

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Allison Pearson was born in South Wales. An award-winning journalist, she was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for her first novel, I Don't Know How She Does It. Allison has written for many magazines and newspapers including the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Observer, the Sunday Times and the London Evening Standard. For four years she was the popular Wednesday column ...more

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