Book review – Jessie ♥ NYC by Keris Stainton

Jessie’s just arrived in New York, hoping to forget about her awful ex.

New Yorker Finn is in love with his best friend’s girlfriend.

They might be perfect together, but in a city of eight million people, will they find each other?

I’d been looking forward to reading Jessie ♥ NYC for a long time and I was so excited when Keris tweeted to say that the book had been released early that I burned the crumpets in my haste to order it! Having got my hands on it, I read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down. Jessie ♥ NYC is the most romantic book I’ve read so far this year and I absolutely loved the combination of my favourite city with great characters and a story that proves that some things are just meant to be.

Main character Jessie heads to New York to spend the summer with her Mum, taking her best friend Emma along for the adventure. I warmed to Jessie and Emma straight away; Keris has really captured the teenage friendship well and as with her debut novel Della Says OMG! has created a lead character that a lot of girls will identify with. Jessie worries about her love life, her future and her relationship with her parents, particularly her Mum who she feels has always put her career first and abandoned her to move to New York.

Although Jessie gets her name on the front of the book, the story concentrates equally on New Yorker Finn with alternating chapters initially focussing on Jessie and and Finn in turn. Finn has his own set of issues which are very similar to Jessie’s; he’s in love with the wrong girl (his best freind’s girlfriend) and the expectations of his family are putting a lot of pressure on his decisions about his future at college. As with Jessie and Emma, Keris has written the friendship between Finn and his best friend Scott well and really seems to have captured the mindset of the male characters in a believable way.

I loved the way that the two strands to the story kept overlapping whilst the two main characters were barely aware of each other – the book reminded me of one of my own favourite New York films Serendipity.  With some good twists in the plot, Jessie ♥ NYC is a fun and enjoyable romantic read. A more serious undertone is added as the book examines two complex parent child relationships and touches on issues surrounding divorce and relationships with a parent’s new partner resulting in a realistic read that has both depth and humour and will appeal to a wide audience of all ages.

From it’s shiny gold cover to the words ‘The End’, I was totally gripped by Jessie and Finn’s stories and finished the book with a big smile on my face. Keris clearly loves New York and knows the city well and there are lots of references to films and TV shows set in the city. I’ve been to New York twice but reading Jessie has added a whole new list of places that I need to visit and if I ever head there again I’ll be taking my copy of Jessie with me!

5/5

You can find out more about Jessie ♥ NYC and Keris Stainton at: http://www.jessieheartsnyc.com