Spring Love

Wildfire #49

by Jennifer Sarasin

Becca's senior year is hardly what she expected. Her mother has left home, and Becca is stuck in New York with her overprotective, critical father. She feels abandoned and alone—until she meets Mark.

Mark is tender and understanding, and soon he and Becca become inseparable! But Becca's father is always between them, putting limits on Becca and treating her like a child.

Can Mark help Becca to stand up for herself, and to convince her father that she can be trusted?

Genres: Young Adult, Romance

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Sarah Elizabeth]

This was fairly dull.

* Becca's parents are getting divorced, her mother is going off to get a degree in Michigan and Becca is staying with her father who she doesn't really know.
* Becca gets a job recording tapes for blind people, and starts dating another boy who works there called Mark.
* Mark holds her hair back when she pukes, is happy to meet her father, and even braves her family at Christmas.
* Becca wants to go on a Washington trip with her school and is chosen to go, but her father doesn't want her to go because Mark is going. They have a looooong talk, and he eventually tells her she can go. Halleluyah.

[Kate]

I read this book because I've been searching for this book, and someone suggested this as the possible culprit. Unfortunately, this is not the book I was searching for.

Becca's parents are newly divorced, and now she has to spend her senior year living with her stuffy father in NYC while her mother pursues college in Michigan. Luckily, while working after school (a convenient excuse to spend less time with her father), she meets Mark and the two start dating. Unfortunately, Mark's first meeting with Becca's dad doesn't go so well...

This story was more about Becca dealing with her parents' divorce and learning about her distant father than about romance. Mark, frankly, seems kind of rude and boring - oh, you like foreign films and current events! Wow... but Becca's isn't too exciting herself aside from constant moodiness. And he's quite rude to Becca when Becca invites him to Christmas with her family (apparently Mark is Jewish and doesn't celebrate Christmas, but this isn't really addressed), all because he doesn't care to be in the hot seat with Becca's "daddy" as she annoyingly calls him throughout the book despite saying in the beginning that she thinks it's babyish. Good job bringing your emotionally vulnerable girlfriend to tears, Mark. And never mind that you basically both admit to only dating because you're both lonely. I also thought it was a bit rude of Becca to go out with Mark after her best friend indicates that she has a crush on him the first time Becca ever sees him.

I have no idea why this book is titled "Spring Love" as it takes place during the fall and winter months, and there's very little on the romance side between Becca and Mark. I was more intrigued by Joanie, their super shy coworker who apparently has a boyfriend at the end we never get to meet... what's her deal?

[Ana]

A YA book that I re-read every few years. I don't know what it is about it, but I love the story.
The growing relationship between Becca and her father make for an interesting read. Add in a young man for her to fall in love with, and you have an instant hit.