Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti

tammihart

At the beginning of her sophomore year, Marisa is ready for a fresh start and, more importantly, a boyfriend. So when the handsome and popular Derek asks her out, Marisa thinks her long wait for happiness is over. But several bumps in the road—including her parents’ unexpected separation, a fight with her best friend, and a shocking disappointment in her relationship with Derek—test Marisa’s ability to maintain her new outlook. Only the anonymous DJ, whose underground podcasts have the school’s ear, seems to understand what Marisa is going through. But she has no idea who he is—or does she? In Waiting For You, this third romantic novel from Susane Colasanti, Marisa learns how to “be in the Now” and realizes that the love she’s been waiting for has been right in front of her all along.

eriktice

Marisa is ready for her sophomore year to be different. After waiting for so long for the perfect person to come along and for the rest of her life to start, Marisa is tired of waiting. This is going to be her year. It has to be.


When cute, popular Derek asks Marisa out, it seems like her waiting really is over.

But it turns out, waiting or not, things don't always go smoothly. Instead of living a dream, Marisa's perfect family starts to shatter and dating Derek isn't all it's cracked up to be. And she's drifting a little further away from her life long best girl friend, Sterling.

The only bright spot in what is turning out to be a way less than perfect year is Dirty Dirk--the anonymous pod-caster that the whole school listens to. Even when everything is a mess, Dirk seems to understand exactly what Marisa and the rest of the school need to hear.

Even dealing with her lab partner/neighbor Nash is way harder than she thought filled with missed signals, confusion and a general pervading awkwardness. This is definitely not what Marisa has been waiting for in Waiting For You (2009) by Susane Colasanti.

The story resonated with me. Marisa is immature and rash, jumping to random conclusions with seemingly no confirmation and missing other, larger, things completely as other reviewers have said. But remember she has an anxiety disorder and that is a part of her personality. Other principal characters like Nash felt much more developed compared to Marisa, not to mention being more entertaining, despite Marisa being the one narrating the story.

Other characters can seem more developed because most of the book is Marisa finding out that she wants to "be in the Now" and she is trying to get her life in order.. She also is very good friends with Nash and Sterling.

oh and spoiler ....









Dirty Dirk is Nash.

I figured it out before the end of the book as I remembered Nash's interest in bells and he mentioned some songs as Nash and other activities that Dirty Dirk mentioned as well.

BTW, I rarely do read young adult fiction but I actually enjoyed reading this book partly because it was in the 1st person and I felt done well using Marisa's Point of View in this book.

tammihart

I enjoyed this book. I am not sure how much I would recommend it, I didn't finish it and say "Wow you need to read this book". As a whole it was good but I just didn't seem to connect with Marisa, not sure why.

Eriktice- I did not figure out the ending. You are VERY observant in your reading.

cds2001

I enjoyed this book. It just took a little getting used to the valley talk. lol Just reading the jacket of what the book was about, I figured before even starting it that her dorky friend was the cool, hip guy on the radio. Kind of like watching a soap opera. I've added more YA titles to my 'to read' list. The few that I've read so far have been pretty good.