So I read this book last year - I do believe I got it in a book swap with the lovely Holly of Good Golly Miss Holly - and I realised just now that I never reviewed it. So now is as good a time as any to do so!I absolutely adored Penni Russon's Undine trilogy, as well as her book in the Girlfriend fiction series*, Little Bird. I loved Kate Constable's Always Mackenzie like whoa (I have better words that I could use but I feel that summarises me feelings best). And I'm a big fan of both of their blogs. So I was immensely excited when I found out they were writing a novel together.
Dear Swoosie is fun and hilarious. I loved the twisting storylines - one occuring in the current day, one occurring twenty years ago. It's a little bit far-fetched, but the characters are believable and their emotions are relateable. I love those stories with dual narrators written by different writers, and I adored each of their voices. There was a big chunk of letters about a third along, and while I loved them, I felt like they really drew us out of the other story going on - I think I would have preferred it had the letters been sprinkled throughout. There are many more things I liked about this book - oh, the characters! they were all fabulous - but I don't want to say too much. You'll have more fun reading it if you don't know.
If you like either of these authors, or are looking for a fun read (about friendship and romance and mothers and daughters and a whole lot more), check this out. It's a lot lighter than the other works I've read by both authors, and is quite a bit different than their solo novels, but it's enjoyable and well-written and a lovely book for a Spring afternoon just the same.
(I like the cover - the girls have cute hair - but it doesn't really grab me, or fit with the novel, I don't think. But that just might be my dislike of covers-with-photos-of-people. I like imagining what the characters look like.)
*a series published by Allen & Unwin, and connected to Girlfriend magazine - which leads people to assume all the books would be shallow and frothy, girly-girl books, but this is not so! All the books I've read in the series have been great, appealing to teenage girls while also having depth and interesting themes and more.
This is the book on the publisher's website: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781742371986
