A sympathetic heroine, good themes but a great lack of depth ...

Olivia, sixteen and a half, almost happy in life. Missing only a pittance for his happiness. She has two fathers who love and that support it, a great complicity with his brother, a passion for food and a great best friend Lola. Yet Olivia wants more. She wants to know more about her biological mother and, if possible, meet the love ...

Shoestring who do everything is a light novel that reads quickly. We are from the perspective of the heroine and we will follow through his questions, doubts and choices. It's a chance encounter with a medium in an elevator that goes all trigger. Olivia asks questions but always with the predictions of the seer and a cookbook 1960 which is more of a diary, she will begin to act to achieve happiness.

Overall, I enjoyed this little story even if I found him a big lack of realism. Everything is a little too pink and too easy for Liv. His family has financial difficulties, it has no track to find his mother and the man she loves has disappeared without a trace. Despite this, the luck will smile at her and the teenager will solve one by one, his problems.

Shoestring who do everything is very young, both in style and in the development of history. The novel is read in one sitting and without thinking. Olivia goes from discovery to discovery, and events are moving quickly. The author has done a good job with his heroine as we easily come to imagine, with its passions and phobias. Regarding the secondary characters, they were not much developed (eg Lola) not even see at all for some (eg Theo). We know nothing of them, we move fast on their character as we move quickly on the various stages of the novel. Yet there were interesting topics to operate through the experiences of the protagonists: illness, disability, adoption ... but the author does not dwell. This book is, in my opinion, a great lack of depth and the romance is like the story mignonnette but not transcendent.

Although I have raised several caveats, I am sufficiently attached to Olivia to want to know its history. I did not have to force me so playback is fluid. I had other expectations, but my post-playing feel is ultimately not so negative as that. Family relationships are well treated and in particular the link between Olivia and her parents. The gay parenting is discussed without clichés or prejudices.

In conclusion, three times nothing which is a novel without any fuss but which deserved to be searched. The themes were interesting but not sufficiently exploited. However, I will keep good memories of Olivia and her kitchen!

Other opinions on megworld.fr :)