What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

Book Review #20
What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
Rating: Four stars (refer to the rating system on the right)

Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

My name is Sophie.
This book is about me.
It tells
the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love too. It's not that I'm boy crazy.
It's just that even though
I'm almost fifteen
it's like
my mind
and my body
and my heart
just don't seem to be able to agree
on anything.

Over the course of about forty-five minutes I have laughed, smiled, and ached along with Sophie. What My Mother Doesn't Know contained a lot of firsts for me. It was the first book I read in verse and who knew reading in verse was so awesome. I became so engaged in the book after I point I forgot I was reading. I literally couldn't put the book down. What My Mother Doesn't Know was also the first time I have laughed that hard while reading book. It was written beautifully through poems, deep inner thoughts, journal entries, and short stories.

Sophie is an almost 15-year old girl that is officially boy crazy, as in one of the most boy crazy characters I've ever read about. Sophie has great friends, is funny, artistic, and pretty likable. The novel takes us along her love life and relationships. Sophie finally gets asked out by Dylan, the boy of her dreams, and totally knows it's true love. At first everything's perfect, she couldn't be happier, but then then she starts noticing weirdness. Sophie doesn't feel right about Dylan, but she isn't sure what to do. On the side, Sophie begins an online romance, and you'll just have to see how that turns out. Sophie is finally ready to move on. She meets Murph, the class dork, unattractive to say the least, and just not cool. She finds herself falling for Murph and having feelings unlike any she's ever had. But how is she going tell her friends that she likes the biggest loser in school? On top of that her parents aren't getting along and her relationship with her mother is getting more complicated everyday.

Sophie and most of the characters in the book were so realistic, it was almost scary. Sophie had those crazy, almost stalkerish moments and thoughts that most teenagers have. Her dreams and fantasies were hilarious, at times a bit too much, but don't we all experience some of those? To say the least the book was very honest. The author doesn't hold back on describing real teenage life, even if weird at times. She was extremely infatuated, to the point where she once said- "I wish I could drink a magic potion and shrink way down until I was small enough to fit into his shirt pocket and live there tucked near to his heart listening to it beating in rhythm with mine every minute of every day."

Along with her love life, Sophie has a complicated relationship with her mother. Her mom doesn't know her daughter as much as she thinks she does. Sophie does the kind of things that her mother would never expect her to do. She is a different person at school and at home. A lot of the situations Sophie experienced with her family were so realistic, you could probably picture yourself going through the same things. Sophie always compares her mom and family to her two best friends' family, longing for what they have. Even though Sophie and her mom get into plenty of fights, Sophie comes to realize that even though she hates her mother at the time, she hates hating her even more.

Most importantly, together with Sophie we learn that there us a huge difference between love and lust and that real love can hide itself behind the most unexpected things. Sophie realized loving someone, really loving someone not just their looks, brings out their beauty and amazing features even more. Sones really captures the feelings you get when falling in love with a guy, trusting yourself,and finding the strength to put your heart above everything else. What My Mother Doesn't Know is a quirky, fun, touching, and fast read that everyone should pick up. Oh and I just found out there is a sequel (What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know), which is already waiting for me on the hold shelf. :)