The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter

The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter 2 of 5 stars.

Lainey Pike can tell you everything you need to know about the people in her family just by letting you know how they died. Her reckless stepfather drove his motorcycle off the highway and caused the biggest traffic jam in years. Her long-suffering grandmother lived through cancer and a heart attack before finally succumbing to a stroke. And Lainey's mother--well, Lainey's mother hanged herself in the basement just days after Lainey's high school graduation.

Now Lainey's fine-year-old brother is an orphan and her estranged older sister is moving back home to be his gaurdian. Meanwhile, Lainey's boyfriend is thinking about having a family of their own, and her best friends are always asking the wrong sorts of questions and giving advice Lainey doesn't want to hear. As she tries to pull away from everything familiar, Lainey meets an intriguing new guy who, through a series of Slurpees, burgers, and snowballs, helps her to make peace with a parent she never understood. (Book blurb)

Despite the fact that this is twenty thousand miles away from the books I generally love, I thought this would be a good read. By the time I made it to the middle I was hating it, then in the end... it surprised me.

Hoxter's prose isn't lyric or spectacular, but she does have a very consistent voice for Lainey that makes you really want to like her. Unfortunately, I was a bit annoyed with her throughout the book. Her attitude and irritaiton with her family was a bit tiring, and her treatment of the boyfriend who would quite obviously jump off a cliff for her was far from understandable. The characters were well pieced together, though, even if Lainey was severely lacking something throughout the majority of the book.

As far as whether I would suggest this book to someone... probably not. I'm sure there are going to be people who enjoy it immensely but I just don't think you would be missing out on anything by not reading it. But that's my opinion.