Tori's Review: 52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody

52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody
Series: None
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Rating: ★★★
Pages: 352
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux on January 1st, 2012
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Being America’s favorite heiress is a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.

Lexington Larrabee has never to work a day in her life. After all, she’s the heiress to the multi-billion-dollar Larrabee Media empire. And heiresses are not supposed to work. But then again, they’re not supposed to crash brand new Mercedes convertibles into convenience stores on Sunset Blvd either.

Which is why, on Lexi’s eighteen birthday, her ever-absent, tycoon father decides to take a more proactive approach to her wayward life. Every week for the next year, she will have to take on a different low-wage job if she ever wants to receive her beloved trust fund. But if there’s anything worse than working as a maid, a dishwasher, and a fast-food restaurant employee, it’s dealing with Luke, the arrogant, albeit moderately attractive, college intern her father has assigned to keep tabs on her.

In a hilarious “comedy of heiress” about family, forgiveness, good intentions, and best of all, second chances, Lexi learns that love can be unconditional, money can be immaterial, and, regardless of age, everyone needs a little saving. And although she might have 52 reasons to hate her father, she only needs one reason to love him. 

This was an impulse read for me. A very, very impulse read. Literally I was on my phone around 10 o'clock at night on YouTube when I came across the video trailer for this book. The minute it was over, I got the book and started reading it. I read until around 1 or 2 in the morning. That's how intriguing this book was. Don't be fooled by my three star rating. If you've read my reviews in the past, then you'd know that I rate books pretty harshly. Three stars just means that I liked it, but it wasn't a favorite. Most books I read are three stars or so.

Okay, so first off, I really enjoyed that this book was so entertaining. There really wasn't a dull moment in this book. Although the beginning was a bit slow, it was still interesting and wasn't boring. The beginning just took 1/4 or 1/5 of the book to really get into the plot, which was just fine. The other thing that I liked about 52 Reasons to Hate My Father was the romance. It wasn't overpowering, but it still there. I think it's important to have a bit of romance in a young adult book, because that's what interests young adults (love. Oh, the love. Prince Charming, where art thou?). Unless you're a guy. I know for a fact that most guys really don't care. But like I said, the romance in here was minimal, but it was present. I've found that this is the kind of romance that I like. I hate it when romance shadows the rest of the plot, and 52 Reasons to Hate My Father didn't do that, which I appreciated.

Although I liked Luke and Lex together, I thought that they needed to be a bit more fleshed out as a couple. They really didn't hang out all that much, and when they did, it was because Luke was forced to drive Lex around and babysit her. I think that they needed more heart-to-heart moments to sell me on the fact that they're in love with each other. I know I'm being a bit contradictory with this point because up above I said that I like minimal romance, but I also like when they have reasons to be in love (haha, not-so-funny joke: 52 Reasons to Be in Love. Yeah, I'm done).

I think the fact that this book was so entertaining had to do partly with Lex's inner monologue. She was hilarious, in my opinion. I read a few reviews where people didn't really like her because she was arrogant, but I think that they need to realize that she was basically raised by her brothers and/or her father's staff. People that were hired to take care of her. I think that if her dad had spent more time with her while she was growing up, then she wouldn't have been so...her. I thought that it was interesting to see the perspective of a supposed rich daddy's girl. I say supposed because I doubt that Brody is a real-life rich daddy's girl.

That's really all I have to say about this book. It was thoroughly enjoyable. I don't think I'll be rereading it anytime in the near future (too many other books that I need to knock off my TBR! And oh, god! Christmas! So many books!), but that's okay. There are a lot of books that I like that I probably won't be rereading for another twenty years or ever. I think that this was well worth the read, and it's an easy read at that. If you're looking for something to just sit down and plow right through with, then 52 Reasons to Hate My Father is definitely the book for you! Or if you're just looking for something to read next, this is a good option. It's fun-filled, and definitely something I'd recommend to my friends in real life.

It's Cinderella in reverse.

This fairy tale has officially become a horror story. Happily Ever After on a yacht in the Mediterranean has turned into Crappily Ever After in the dark dungeons of Brentwood. And the princess--who used to be so glamorous and beautiful and on the CIP list of every ball in town--has been handed a bucketful of cleaning supplies and poofed into a maid.