Flat-Out Love By Jessica Park

One Word. Wow. 
Yeah that just about sums up my feelings after finishing this fabulous book by Jessica Park. First off, I rarely ever review a book but with this one I'm going to make a well-deserved exception. When I was starting this book I wasn't too sure what I was getting into, you can never be sure with YA(Young Adult). I mean I had read the amazing reviews given here. But boy was I blown away by the plot, the writing, the characters and the energy of the book. Jessica Park has a gift for drawing her readers in with her melodious (yes, MELODIOUS) writing. I was literally hanging-on to her words, devouring them like my favorite Belgian chocolate. I finished this book in one go, in six hours. I didn't even want to get up to pee lol. And mind you this is right after I came back from the New year's eve party. I just could not put it down!
The story begins with Julie moving to Boston to attend Whitney College. There she is forced to move in with the family of her mother's college friend Erin Watkins. The Watkins family members are seemingly normal but completely eccentric and unique bunch of individuals whom Julie can't seem to figure out for the life of her. From absentee-parents Erin and Roger to unusual Celeste and suffering Matt, this book is full with rich characters that are so real that I felt they were people who actually, truly existed in my world. Julie's character has become one of my most favorite of all time, she is strong yet so vulnerable. I experienced life alongside Julie as she tries to help out Celeste, uncover the secret of the Watkins family, deal with her dysfunctional relationship with her father and try to experience college life and ingenuous love. The book deals with various personal issues of the characters and their psychological reasoning has been dealt with perfection. I could not find any major faults with that aspect and this is considering that I am a psychology student.
Another really wonderful thing about this book is the relationship Julie has with all the various people, they are genuine and tangible. I can feel the force of every interaction literally reach out and touch me and make me realize that I have had many a similar conversations in my real life. Not so much the ones she has with Celeste but the ones with Erin, Finn, Matt and the others. And the romance, oh the romance! I have fallen in love with this author just for the way she developed the romance in this book. So unpredictable and so beautiful, a true touch of magic in the ever so ordinary life of a girl (though there is absolutely nothing ordinary about this book). The kind of love every girl dreams about, the one that builds up slowly in your life and then one day sweeps you off your feet. 

Well not something exactly on that tangent but you get my point!

Not to get distracted, the book is a marvelous piece of literature, yes, literature, and everyone should read it. This book is by far the best YA I have come across in a long time. And for that matter, it should not even be considered a YA because this book has a huge scope. The plot never became uninteresting, the characters never came across as whiny or made-up, the writing never lost its focus and the climax, oh god the climax, hit me so hard I was like...

But seriously, by the surreal ending I literally had tears in my eyes and I rarely cry. I'm going to re-read it very soon and it's going to have an exalted place in my actual library with the rest of my collection of selected classics and contemporary novels.

Here's the book for your reference: Flat-Out Love -Jessica Park 

I suggest you buy this immediately and treat yourself to this gem of a work on a nice rainy day with a cup of hot chocolate :)