Review: If I Tell by Janet Gurtler

If I Tell by Janet Gurtler
Published: October 1st, 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 256
Source: ARC from Netgalley/bought
Challenge: none
Other: NA
Buy the book: Bookdepository


Jasmine Evans knows one thing for sure... people make mistakes. After all, she is one. Jaz is the result of a onenight stand between a black football player and a blonde princess. Having a young mother who didn't raise her, a father who wants nothing to do with her and living in a small-minded town where she's never fit in hasn't been easy. But she's been surviving. Until she sees her mom's new boyfriend making out with her own best friend. When do you forgive people for being human or give up on them forever?

Janet Gurtler proves with this book that she is an amazing author with an incredible talent to make you involved in her beautifully written story. If I Tell had me pulled in from the first page, and I couldn't stop reading until I flipped the last one.

Where do I even start to describe how much I loved this book?

When Jasmine finds out that her mother's boyfriend cheated on her mom with Jasmine's best friend, she decides to tell her mother what she saw. But when her mom tells her something she was absolutely not expecting, she panics. She can't tell her now, but she also can't face what's happening right in front of her.

Jasmine was a great character. She was loyal, but honest and sometimes even bluntly so. She was flawed, biased and angry, but she was also vulnerable, friendly and loving. She felt so incredibly real that I had no issues whatsoever to feel with her while I experienced her journey. Sure, she made mistakes, but I could see where she was coming from most of the time. She had a difficult upbringing because she was biracial in a place where there were only white people. I loved this part of her, because it made her stand out from other heroines.

I absolutely loved this book, not only because of the plot and the characters, who were completely fleshed out and real, even the snobby side characters, but also because Gurtler's writing has an addicting quality that made me unable to flip the pages quick enough. I was on the verge of tears most of the time while I was reading the book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jasmine's story.

If you're looking for a great realistic and often brutally honest contemporary story, this is a book for you.

My overall rating:


Five big fat stars for the second book of one of my new favorite authors.