Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Possibilities of Sainthood


Freitas, Donna. 2008. The Possibilities of Sainthood.

I'm in like with this book. It's cute. It's funny. The narrative voice works for me. I found the main character, Antonia Lucia Labella, to be lovable. I found Michael, her "friend" who is only a friend to be crush-worthy. Antonia's crush, Andy, was predictable and a bit undeveloped. (No reader doubts that he is filler, just a pawn in the story.) Maria was a nice sidekick. I loved the Labella family as a whole. This book had atmosphere--plenty of atmosphere--and delightful characters as well.

Antonia Lucia Labella wants to be the first living saint. She writes the Vatican once a month with her ideas--always fresh, innovative, down-to-earth and practical--with ideas for new patron saints. So far no luck. The book begins with her idea of having a new patron saint for figs and fig trees. That's only the beginning. This premise is cute, but it doesn't grow old...at least not in my opinion. Antonia is just too likeable.

When she's not writing to the Vatican, praying to the saints, doing her homework, or working with her mom in her business, she's crushing on Andy. Andy's her dream guy. But the only guy in her life, Michael, is there uninvited. He's always closer than Antonia likes. Though Michael insists that he's just there to be her friend. Her friend on her terms. Her head is full of hopes and dreams of having her first kiss...and having that kiss come from the ever-dreamy Andy. Will Antonia be the last to notice how thoroughly kissable Michael is?

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

Sarah Rettger said...

I just read this last week - but now I'm going to have to reread it before I hand it over to a friend tomorrow.