Certain Girls Review

I ordered Jennifer Weiner's Certain Girls because I've read all of the other novels that she's written and truly enjoyed them.  I was heading out on my combo Spring Break/wedding trip to Cozumel, Mexico and needed something new to read as I sat on the plane, on the beach, and in the pool.

Certain Girls is a follow-up to Jennifer Weiner's incredibly successful break-out novel, Good In Bed.  It picks up Cannie Shapiro's (now Cannie Shapiro Krushelevansky) story 13 years after we left her.  She is now happily married and her beloved daughter Joy is preparing for her bat mitzvah as she enters the difficult teenage years.  Cannie's husband, Peter, wants them to have a baby via surrogate and eventually convinces her to do so.

There really isn't any huge crisis in Certain Girls to drive the story forward.  Basically, it is just Cannie being an overprotective mother and Joy being a typical, sullen teenager.  I read books in the afternoon/evening after work because I want to relax and just read something interesting and pleasant.  Unfortunately, this book and all of the mother-daughter drama it contained grated on my nerves.  I was lounging on the beach in a gorgeous tropical location, preparing for my wedding, and I found myself becoming annoyed and eventually angry every time I read Certain Girls.  I finally had to bury the book in the bottom of my luggage and wait to finish it until my trip was over and I was back at home.

I wouldn't recommend Jennifer Weiner's Certain Girls to anyone who has read one of her other books.  This one is definitely the worst one that she has written so far and certainly a disappointment for readers who are expecting something like In Her Shoes or Little Earthquakes.