Laurel

The Year I Turned Sixteen #3

by Diane Schwemm

In the third installment of the series that began with Rose and Daisy, Laurel is devastated by Daisy's death and fears her family is falling apart, but Jack offers comfort. Original.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Malyn Sampang]

laurel compared to the the first three novels showcase the awkward disposition of teenager amidst the peer pressure, family dynamics and in laurel's case, financial status of her family.

her straight forward approach on life makes her refreshing compared to rose and lily. i like her wit and simple desires that makes laurel endearing without trying to much

[✩▹Lily◃✩ {Newt's Version} · Rating 3 out of 5]

!!𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚓𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚍, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚓𝚘𝚛 𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜!! 𝙴𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢 - 𝙻𝚒𝚕𝚢

𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈
★★★☆☆

𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈
𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴:
"(Taking Whats Not Yours - Tv Girl)"
0:09 ━●────────── 3:25
ㅤ ㅤ◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷

𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒚
Rose is getting married, and Daisy was in a fatal car accident. She feels as if she has nothing in common with her younger sister, Lily. And on top of that, her new boyfriend is super clingy, and she soon might realize he isn't her perfect match.

𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔
Laurel was more enjoyable than Rose but not as much as Daisy. What made me upset about this book was the fact that the author killed off Daisy just for the plot. It had been years since her father had died, so she just had to throw in more grieving. The plot could have been way better if we had spent more time with Jack and Carlos. Diane Schwemm writes grief well, but it just doesn't need to be in this book. Then we have the second matter that I haven't seen anyone talk about yet Carlos??? IF she had started to date him, I would have given this one star; thankfully, they didn't get together. Still though, Laurel was FREASHLY 16 and he was 19 (I think about to turn 20). I really didn't want to have to read about a 3-year illegal age gap, im glad the author didn't take that route.

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔

𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐥
I dont really have much to say about her. I really liked the fact that she didn't change as much as Rose and Daisy did. But the whole thing has a crush on Carlos just set me wrong

𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤
His personality has changed so much since he started to date Laurel. It made no sense.

[Delaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly this book was really good. Daisy's was my favorite tho. But Laurel's is so sad and I was devastated when Daisy died.

[Brenda L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Rose's and Daisy's story, i couldn't wait until reading the third sisters story, Laurel. Laurel must cope with the lose of someone close to her, he older sister, Daisy. With two of the people that Laurel loved gone, she slowly takes shelter in her job. Which works with animals. Laurel begins to take on tasks harder than she bargained for, being the maid of honor are her oldest sister's wedding, and dating someone who has been in her life as a best friend for many years. When things begin to finally be put back in place, Laurel begins to find out she likes a coworker.

While annotating the test, i realized that Laurel would always go to the WRC, which was the place she worked that helped animals. Laurel went there all the time, and i felt like that was her place to escape and she really loved it there. Looking at the way Laurel acts, its as if she doesn't ever want to be a bother, and has no self confidence. She didn't want to be Rose's maid of honor becuase she was scared that she wouldn't live up to Daisy's shadow.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Daisy dies, Laurel gets hit the hardest and tried to cope with the loss by throwing herself into her work at an animal rescue shelter.

She begins dating her lifelong friend Jack and their relationship is good until Jack becomes clingy and she realizes that she feels no spark between them. In this story I thought that the romantic challenge felt very forced, there wasn't really much of a reason for Laurel to feel dissatisfied with Jack aside from his being clingy, which I thought was an unrealistic change of character. And by the end of the story, her relationship problems still weren't really resolved.

Not a whole lot happened in this story though. She had to help Rose plan her wedding after becoming Rose's Maid of Honour and had trouble with living up to her responsibility. But like the other stories, things pretty much turn out well in the end.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the fact that I hadn't liked the previous sisters book, I liked this one, and felt so sad about Daisy's death. I guess the reason I liked this one is because my personality best matches Laurel's and so I understand completely how she feels. She's trying to get by and cope with the death of a dearly loved person in her life, and at the same time, she's growing up. Okay, she didn't "change" as much as her older sisters did like when Rose was lying about her home life or when Daisy went "grunge" but she changed in the fact that she learned how to accept what happened, and that by itself is a huge thing. Congrats to Laurel for staying true to herself, I loved her!

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose is getting married, and Laurel wants to help, but she feels burdened by the whole process and she feels the loss of Daisy even more keenly planning an event that she should be a big part of.

Laurel is an animal lover, so her passion leads her to working at a shelter. I enjoyed this book, although it was not as exciting as the others, it was a fun read.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is my favorite of the four this time around, and I just have one thing to add: asexual Laurel! Seriously though, it would only take one or two tiny tweaks and I feel like it would work so well. If this weren't so irrelevant, I would commission a fanfiction. But oh well, for now you can just imagine it and realize how glorious it would be (representation is important ok).

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really touching. I related a lot to both Laurel and Jack. I could see things from both POVs and it was a bittersweet feeling.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

also a great book