The Book Of Luke by Jenny O'Connell

The Book Of Luke

Jennifer O'Connell

291 pages

Publisher: MTV Books

Release Date: April 3rd, 2007
Rate: Love it

"The Guy's Guide Tip #1: 

Forget Everything you thought you knew about girls. 

You don't know anything"

Emily has always been a nice, or at least has always been considered that. Maybe that is because of her mother, newspaper columnist and bestselling author of etiquette books. 

All comes crushing Emily's world when she founds out that she has to move back to Boston in the middle of her senior year while her father stays in Chicago. To add more drama, she is waitlisted by Brown and dumped the morning of her flight to Boston by her boyfriend while he is wearing the jacket she gave him for Christmas and eating the breakfast she prepared for him. That is what happens when you are nice. So Emily is determined to not go through this situations any more, is time to make her own decisions. But not just that. Guys need to learn to not act like total douchebags, and what could be better than create a handbook for guys?

Forced to move back to Boston, Emily joins Heywood Academy where the time capsule event is a big deal there for the seniors. Each senior puts something memorable in the capsule box and then, 50 years after, the next students of that year will see what is in the box. Emily, Lucy and Josie decide to put the Guy's guidebook in the time capsule box, because they have the strong feeling that guys from 50 years from now are going to be as jerks as their contemporary classmates. But first, they need to prove that such thing works. Who is gonna be the rat lab? Handsome and hurtingly hot Luke Preston who happens to be Josie ex-boyfriend and the guy who dumped Josie by e-mail over Christmas vacation. Could any guy do it worse? Yes, they do.

Before Emily moved to Chicago, Luke Preston was nobody. Now a few years later, Luke Preston is damaging cute and leaves every girl in Heywood Academy breathless. The worst part? He knows it. Luke Preston becomes a target to the three girls and at first he is a lovely guy trying to win Emily, but as time goes by, Luke Preston's true nature emerges dangerously. And not the way Emily was expecting. She has to spent time with him for the Guide, but she starts falling for the guy that it is supposed to be just an experiment. How do you tell the guy you are hanging out with that he was just an experiment, a game, at first? 

Things get more complicated when her friend Josie starts talking about getting back with Luke once Emily has "domesticated" him. Truth is, Emily has not been telling everything that was going on with Luke and with her and the feelings she was starting to notice to arise for him. Everything, at this point, is a total and unimaginable mess.

The thing we really liked about this book is the main character: Emily. She is sick of being played for being nice and she is smart, funny and easy to identify with. Although we do love the Luke and Emily moments that are in the book, we feel a little bit sad for the fact that Emily is playing with our hot Luke all along.

On the other side, we do not really like Josie and Lucy sometimes. what kind of best friends ask another friend to date a guy with the Guide's purposes? It is like they are the bosses of this movement and they do not take in consideration Emily's feelings. We all knew since Emily walked in Luke's car that she was going to fall for him, if we realize this, her best friends too, right? Besides, Josie was dating him before all this started. Why would she wanted to put her best friend in the living hell that Luke made her live when he dumped her? Just to "re-educated" Luke in order to date him again? That is not being a best friend, not even a friend!

Although in the end, they both recant for everything (we cannot say how or why because that would be a massive spoiler), we still hold resentment toward them. But all teenagers act without thinking, always. It is like a massive rule. You have to act like this, if not you may as well be an alien. We have got over this phase, but hey, you are never too old to do silly things. Probably the Guide for Guy's would have been an awesome idea if Luke has known since day one of it. It would have been his choice to date Emily for the sake of science or whatever, but if this was the case, Luke would not have been the real Luke either. So... 

However, we LOVE the tips that you can find in each chapter in the book. All are totally true! So guys, you should read this book too. Just to know a few things you probably do and should not do.

"The Guy's Guide Tip #9:

Your penis will not shrivel and die if you admit you want an umbrella instead of standing in the rain acting like a little water never killed anyone. It's an umbrella, not a purse."

"The Guy's Guide Tip #9A:

If you choose to ignore Tip #9, do not suggest an impromptu wet T-shirt contest - you're not funny and our life's aspiration does not include a starring role in a Girls Gone Wild video."

"The Guy's Guide Tip #13:

"Bodily noises are not cause for high fives, chest bumps, or other forms of celebration. Keep them to yourself."

"The Guy's Guide Tip #14:

Do not blame my tone of voice, my lack of patience or my bad mood on PMS. It's not my period that's my problem. More likely, it's you."

"The Guy's Guide Tip #18:

Just because you can urinate anywhere you want doesn't mean you s hold - even if your aim is so good you can spell out "Red Sox Rule" in capital letters without once taking a break."

"The Guy's Guide Tip #27:

It's a remote control, not a symbol of your supreme power over the universe. Give s the TV remote and let us pick what we watch for once. Really, would it kill you?"

"The Guy's Guide Tip #30:

When you wear something, wash it. And just because you can turn something inside out does not mean it doesn't count. Contrary to what you believe, there are not varying degrees of clean. There's just clean and dirty. Learn the difference."

"The Guy's Guide Tip #46:

People can have nicknames. Body parts should not."

"The Guy's Guide Tip #51:

We all learned penmanship in kindergarten, but why hasn't your handwriting gotten any better? A little effort would be appreciated."

What do you think girls about the Tips? Interesting, uh? We bet some of you have gone like: man, it is true. They really do that thing. Right? And you guys? How do you feel about this?

If you liked the quotes, you just have to get your hands on The Book Of Luke to read more and get to know Emily and her story. We can assure you that you are gonna love it. If you like Susan Colasanti, Sarah Dessen and Jennifer Echols books, you are definitely going to go crazy about this book. 

We have to thank Jenny O'Connell for this magnificent work and for sharing Emily's life with us. 

Buy this book:

Visit Jenny O'Connell website