The Summer I Became a Nerd

"That was incredible! No, it was amazing! Incredizing? Amazible? Whatever. It was awesome" Have you ever had that one really embarrassing moment in school that you wish everyone would just forget? Kids can be so mean sometimes! After being ridiculed in a costume contest in the sixth grade (by the person she considered her best friend, no less), Maddie swore off ever revealing her true self again lest she commits social suicide. She put all her efforts into becoming the typical cheerleader girl who dates the quarterback and listens to pop music. She's truly a nerd in disguise and when someone catches on to her secret identity, she's left to decide if letting her skeletons out of the closet is worth risking the image she's built for herself for so many years. This was such a light and fun read! I read a lot of books that are dark, full of angst, drama and characters who are deeply flawed. The Summer I Became a Nerd is such a perfect break from all that dark and heavy reading. I've never smiled so much from a book before! I literally had a smile plastered on my face from beginning to end that my cheeks cramped up! It reminded me so much of what it was like to be 17 again. I was never into comics and I didn't fangirl over anything, but I was a nerd. The type of nerd that other kids would try to sit next to during tests, or steal your work and claim it as theirs (seriously, I had that happen to me in grade school). It's a book that I would love for my daughter to read when she gets older. It's just too cute and sweet and funny and has a few life's lessons. "It's not just high school. People are going to judge you for all kinds of reasons for the rest of your life. Because you vote one way or the other, because you go to one school or the other, because you look a certain way. It's a fact of life: you can't make everyone happy. But you can make you happy." Oh, and I can't forget about the supporting characters. The parents on both sides where just incredible and so supportive! I love it! Logan's siblings are funny and too cute for words, and Maddie's big brother reminds me of my own. Maddie's best friend, Terra, is the kind of friend I like to have by my side. And Logan's best friend, Dan, is hilarious! There's already a lot of humor in the book, but Dan just takes it a-whole-nother level. His quips and remarks had me laughing out loud. This is highly recommended for adults and young adults alike. An excellent light summer read! No angst, no drama, just pure unadulterated fun!

~4/5 I really enjoyed this book. Like, a lot. I was expecting to, as well, and it's really nice when I enjoy something as much as I was hoping to. Maddie is a cheerleader, the girlfriend to the quarterback, and hiding that she geeks out over comic books and science fiction and, when she starts doing it, LARPing (Live-Action RolePlaying). When she was younger, she got teased for being a fan of comic books, and decides that she didn't want to feel that way ever again, and so started hiding her geek tendencies and sometimes pretending to like the things that everyone else does. This book was a really fast read. I hadn't even meant to really start it, since I was trying to get through a different book, only to get half-way through this one in one night, and then of course finish it the next morning. Because it went by so quickly, and it was so good that I didn't want to stop. So. I liked Maddie. She was very misguided and much too afraid of what other people think of her, and kept making these stupid mistakes because of those reasons, but I still liked her. I liked being in her head, hearing her thoughts as she dreads and over-thinks things and geeks out over certain things/people. And even while she was being dumb and thinking a bit too much about herself at times, she was also loyal, as best as she could be. And when she finally smarted up, she did a very good job of trying to make up for it. I also very much liked the love interest, Logan. He's a geek, and he's adorkable, and he's sweet. I felt bad for him several times because of how Maddie was treating him, and annoyed when he gave in too easily. But I still liked him and their interactions, and think him and Maddie fit well together. The way they got together, their pre-attraction to each other, it was all just adorable to me. I like Logan's best friend, Dan, who's crude and loud and funny but loyal to his friends. I liked Maddie's best friend, Terra, and also felt bad for her because of what Maddie was doing, although I do think that we could have gotten to know her better, given how little we saw of her. I also really liked Maddie and Logan's parents, who we saw a pretty good amount of. I liked what I saw of Maddie's brother, and would have liked to have seen him more. I loved all of the geeky things. I liked the fangirling, and the radio show, and the comic book store, and the comics, and the LARPing was awesome. For some reason I always like reading stories when one of the characters, usually the girl, already has a boyfriend/girlfriend, but one who they don't really get along with for some reason. And so I liked the situation that Maddie was in, as well as the somewhat similar one that Logan was in. So, pretty much, I really liked this book. Kind of loved it, even. I'll probably end up re-reading/skimming it in the future for the best scenes (i.e. the romantic ones), and I will definitely be picking up Miller's future books. [This review is also available on my blog.]

I really thought this was going to be better than it was. I loved the whole hidden identity. I loved her nerdiness and I really liked how she and Logan meet and hang out in the comic store (which he will be inheriting). I am even a nerd enough myself that I love the whole cosplay angle. What got a little too deep in the kool-aid for me, was LARP (I dunno if this is a real thing)... and the role-playing. It made a weird date night and it made a really cheesy ending. I mean seriously, dressing in cosplay and battling your boyfriends jealous ex-girlfriend... okay... I just made it sound a lot more awesome than it was. Lol. That makes its sound like they drew blades and had it out... so not what happened... by a long shot. With that said, I did really like the two characters. It was a cute story in its own way. I think we all struggle for identity at some point in our lives. If you like role-playing cosplay conventions, you may find that bit more entertaining than I did. I wish there could have been more up play with the comics and hanging out in the comic store... maybe even more of Logan's home life.

MaddieはSix gradeの時のコンテストで自信作の手作りコスチュームを笑われ、恥をかいて誓う。 ーーそれから５年、オタクを隠し必死でPopularity ladderのトップに上りつめた・・・がその日、Comic「Super Ones」の最終巻のため行った店Phoenixで店員のLoganに変装を見破られてしまう。 English classで一緒で、前から秘かにMaddieのGeek IdolだったLoganから最終巻を借りたことから、Maddieの内に秘めたNerdを開放させる夏休みが始まる。 コミックやコスプレ？などの話と共にMaddieとLoganの恋愛が進行して、それと同時にMaddieも本当の自分をさらけ出す勇気を手にいれる。 感情も高まりドキドキもしたが、途中で急停止してしまう感じがあり・・・ でも、良いシーンが満載で、特にLoganの親友Danの友情と、Loganの妹Veraの可愛さが見所です。

I had high expectations for this book but in the end... well, there was something off. I really don't know what was wrong with it. Maybe there's something I have to say before starting. Sometimes it's really difficult to imagine in my head the workings of an American high school. We're overwhelmed by books and movies and TV series set in US high school and still sometimes it's very difficult to picture how it really is. For instance, I'm really confused about the concept of popularity. What it takes to be popular or why people would want to spend hours creating a perfect personality to show to their fellow students. And this is where the problem with the main character of this book started. I couldn't understand why she had to hide her passions and hobbies just to be a cheerleader. She weaves a tangled web of lies to pretend that she's a vapid high school student who likes country music. Don't get me wrong: I've got tons of country music myself, I love it. But it was very difficult to sympathize with her: she's the cause of all her problems. Am I nerd? Hard to say. I don't like US comics because they're endless. I mean, if I start to read a manga I'm sure that there's a beginning and that sometimes in the future there will be a conclusion. There may be some bonus stories about the past of the main characters but in the end is a discorse with an ending. US comics have a beginning but they don't have and ending. And there are so many back stories that it's impossible to know it all about a single character. This always happen with manga. I do watch superheroes movies and I the Spider-man cartoons series were my must-watch when I was a kid. I've never watched Star Trek or Star Wars and I haven't planned to do it soon. I'm not into role playing but I love dressing up for Carnival. When I was reading the book it was a bit boring to read about Maddie's ranting about her favorite comics and the role playing explanations were a bit boring as well. At the same time the book was a funny and fast reading. It was the perfect reading for the weekend. And what Maddie does to make it up to Logan it's really a surprise and an interesting idea, not only for Logan. I do recommend this book because of his lightness and because it may give you some insight into the world of true nerds. ^__^

We all remember high school don't we folks? *Cringe* Some of us are still battling through it. Whether it's a current nightmare, or a nightmare we can say with relief is behind us, we can all agree that at one point or another we faced the daunting task of learning to be ourselves. Madelyne Summers knows too well that being yourself in high school will have its repercussions. So for the longest time she has opted to suppress her nerdy leaning where the public is concerned and show the world a finely tuned veneer in the form of Maddie the perky, blonde cheerleader, dating the popular quarterback. But hiding who she truly is becomes increasingly more difficult, especially when she meets comic book loving Logan. He lives freely in the world she is undeniably drawn to. Will she unleash her inner nerd and be herself? Or stay safely hidden by her pom-poms? Well you'll have to read it and find out! I loved this book for four main reasons: #1 I married a dork, and adorable, dork and it wasn't until I married this adorkable man that I unleashed my inner nerd. I related to Maddie in that until she met Logan, she didn't know how to be really be herself. He opened an awesome world up to her as my nerd did for me. It's always a joy to find a book you can personally relate to. Even if you currently don't have a nerdy leaning, after reading this book you will! (Start putting away a comic book fund now!) #2 I absolutely adored every single character. Maddie was such a sweet girl I wanted to be her friend! She was inspiring, brave and creative such a pleasure to read about. There wasn't a character I didn't like. Even the bullies! Every single person played an important role in the book. #3 It was laugh out loud funny! Im not at all into the fantasy aspect of nerdism. BUT, I'm a book nerd and science fiction nerd so i loved the witty references. It made me want to have a Battlestar Galactica board game weekend bender. But that would involve putting the book down before finishing it to organize such an event and that would be be ludicrous! #4 Writing style was great! I imagined so clearly the descriptions of comic book posters and although the characters weren't overly described i had no problem imagining what they looked like. In conclusion I read plenty of action, science fiction and dystopian. Books that require brain power to read. This book was the perfect 'between books', light, easy read. Leah Rae Miller made me smile, laugh out loud and left me with a new found confidence and bravery to be myself <3 http://bookishhangup.blogspot.com.au

I loved it! I read it in the space of a few hours. It was the perfect summer read. The perfect way to start off my holiday. It has romance and comic books and other geekery. It appeared because I still blush every time I buy a comic book, convinced I'll be denounced as a fraud. It was perfect story about remembering to be yourself and your true friends will accept you as long as you're a good friend to them too.

What an adorable rom-con in young adult form. I love how self-aware Maddie turns to be. I liked that she was the one who messed up and learned from her mistakes. It's usually the boy that does and it was refreshing to see a normal teenaged girl admit she was wrong. What a cute book and just what I needed to get back into reading once again.