Waiting for You

Reviewed by Steph for TeensReadToo.com

Marisa has had a crush on Derek for a long, long time. He's perfect: friendly, cute, popular. The only problem is that he has a girlfriend. Then there's Nash, her longtime, geeky neighbor. Sure, he's super shy, but he's also extremely sweet and smart.

So when Derek breaks up with his girlfriend and starts paying attention to Marisa, she's ecstatic. Soon it's official - Derek and Marisa, the couple of the school. But then things change between Nash and Marisa. They start to talk more and find themselves becoming good friends. And then there's the fact that the once geeky Nash isn't so geeky anymore. In fact, he seems to have gotten...a style!

When Marisa has Derek, the guy she's always wanted, doesn't that mean she should be happy? And when she's not happy, does this mean that maybe she and Derek aren't meant to be?

Susane Colasanti writes a must-read for all teens. Not only does this book delve into young love, but it also deals with family life and the problems that are common today. This book is a rite of passage for all teens going through the dramas of high school: family problems, friend drama, crazy siblings, cute boys, and surprising finds.

WAITING FOR YOU, the third teen read from Colasanti, is recommended to all. This book will bring laughs, tears, and awkward moments that will be sure to please everyone who reads it.

26 out of 27 people found this review helpful.

Determined To Find a Boyfriend

Marisa has never had a boyfriend and she wants one. She has never been kissed and she wants to be. It's her sophomore year and she's intent on resolving these issues. Her heart is set on Derek, but he already has a girlfriend. Nash, a guy she's known since grade school and who lives three doors down from her, could be the one since he has feelings for her, but Marisa is so sure he is not her type. Will she have to go through another year of high school spending every Saturday night with her best friend, Sterling, or will she finally be dating? Marisa is coping with an anxiety disorder, she finds out that her `normal' family has problems just like other families and she becomes concerned about her hyperactive friend who has started seeking companionship online. This teenage girl has a lot going on but intense isn't how I'd describe her sophomore year. For all of the problems Marisa was faced with this story wasn't really filled with much drama. This was actually a cozy read for me - to the point chapters, good friendships, and a teenage girl learning what teenage boys are all about without any serious mental, emotional or physical abuse. It would have been nice if fifteen year old Marisa was focused on more important things other than finding a boyfriend, but that is the reality. There are girls like Marisa who are set on finding a boyfriend at such a young age (or maybe fifteen isn't so young these days). I understood Marisa's need for affection (kissing is as far as she went) and I was glad she found someone who genuinely cared about her. I was disappointed with the choice Marisa's mother made - parenting is about making sacrifices, that's just the way it is. And parents of teenage boys sending a girl visitor up to their sons' rooms? Not in my house. Derek - I won't call him a typical teenage boy because all guys don't play with girls feelings the way he did but he is proof that good looks aren't enough. And Dirk (I wasn't surprised when his identity was revealed) - teenage girls can learn quite a bit from what he had to say. There is profanity, but not much, and God's name is taken in vain, but not nearly as much as some young adult novels I've read. Or a few I thought about buying but changed my mind after leafing through them. People do this, I know, so I guess it was another way to make the characters believable, but this is something I am not comfortable with. God's name is holy and should be handled with care. Overall, I enjoyed this story. The mentions of John Mayer were nice since I really like his music and I like the author's writing. Colasanti doesn't waste words; her transitions are so smooth. Also, her characters are believable as well as the issues these young people are dealing with. I will read more of her work.

6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic!!!

A story about finding out that the things that you want are not always what you really want and the things that you have could become more than you think. It was a good story to read and worth reading.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Very Boring

This is my first Susane Colasanti book, and I'll be honest, its pretty boring. I think I will try reading a few of Colasanti's other books, but I would not recommend this one. The book was okay at first, but as it gets further and further into the book it starts to get just really boring. The characters seem to be very desperate for a relationship unlike some other books where the characters find themselves in a relationship more unexpectedly or naturally. But I would suggest this book maybe for a middle schooler but not so much for a high schooler. So, overall it is okay at first, but continues on to be boring.

4 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Colasanti's best book so far

I've read Colasanti's When it Happens and Take Me There, and I always thought those books where lacking something. And finally i found THAT something in this book...i really really enjoyed it. I recomend this book to all readers looking for a brilliant love story...that's also funny and witty. However I also recomend to try read this book slowly (I read it in 2 days)so you can truly enjoy this delightful novel.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Pretty Good

This book is one of Susan's best. She included the struggles of what its really like to be in love. Waiting for you is really just a good book about a girl who wants to know what love is

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

my opionion

this book is great. it is good if you like a book like romance. Its lovely for any age realy from 6th grade up.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Seeing what you already have

Its an amazing story on seeing the people who have always been there. Sometimes you need to see who is right in front of you, this book shows there are people like that and they are just hiding under your nose.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

AN AMAZING READ!

After just reading Colasanti's second novel, Take Me There, and being somewhat dissapointed with it, I was really anxious to read this one. And Waiting For You was amazing and is now my favorite teen read from Susane. It is only from one character's pov and isn't just your classic story line of a pretty girl who dates the school hottie then realizes whata loser he is and falls in love with the geeky boy. There is a lot more to this novel. Friendship is a main key along with love and accepting the way things are, no matter how dissapointing they can be. Susane Colasanti has a great message to young adults through this book and I highly reccomend this novel!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Waiting For You...

This book was Amazing! I can really relate Marisa feels the same way i do about so many things. I loved Susane Colasanti's other books but this is my favorite. i would deffenitly recommend this book and I am going to make sure my friends read it too!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

didn't work for me

Marisa is ready for her sophomore year to be different. After waiting for so long for the perfect person to come along and for the rest of her life to start, Marisa is tired of waiting. This is going to be her year. It has to be.

When cute, popular Derek asks Marisa out, it seems like her waiting really is over.

But it turns out, waiting or not, things don't always go smoothly. Instead of living a dream, Marisa's perfect family starts to shatter and dating Derek isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The only bright spot in what is turning out to be a way less than perfect year is DJ--the anonymous podcaster that the whole school listens to. Even when everything is a mess, DJ seems to understand exactly what Marisa and the rest of the school need to hear.

Even dealing with her lab partner/neighbor Cash is way harder than she thought filled with missed signals, confusion and a general pervading awkwardness. This is definitely not what Marisa has been waiting for in Waiting For You (2009) by Susane Colasanti.

Waiting For You is Colasanti's third book. Like her others, it is also YA. Despite that, and the age of her narrator, this book felt much younger to me. If not for the focus on dating and relationships, I would have pegged this as a Middle Grade title rather than a Young Adult one.

While the story resonates with teens who share Marisa's frustrations about waiting for something and seemingly never finding it, this was not my favorite Colasanti read. Although the story was interesting--Colasanti always manages to pack in a lot of fun extras besides the core story--I never connected with Marisa as a narrator.

Consequently, I'm sorry to say the story did not resonate with me. Marisa is immature and rash, jumping to random conclusions with seemingly no confirmation and missing other, larger, things completely. Other principal characters like Cash felt much more developed compared to Marisa, not to mention being more entertaining, despite Marisa being the one narrating the story.

Waiting For You has its fans, and it will appeal to some readers. For others, like me, it won't. But that's okay because Colasanti has a lot of other books that are sure to do the trick.

Possible Pairings: The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti, What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen, The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart, Vibes by Amy Kathleen Ryan, Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Bautiful

I love this book because this can actually happen in real life! It's very good advise for your future if anything happens like this to you!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A decent book.

Waiting for You was a good read. Reading it on and off for about 30 minutes for a week and I finished it. Overall I thought the story line was pretty realistic, (or at least in a girl's mind). For the most part, the author did a decent job of developing the story line. I kind of felt like the characters weren't very well developed. I didn't see a huge change until the abrupt changes at the end of the book. The one thing I really honestly hated about the book was how the author wrote it. "And Derek was all 'I'm sorry' and I was like 'yeah I bet you were' and he was all like 'why are you making such a big deal of this' and I'm like..." She wrote the book on how a typical teenager would talk, which isn't really a problem, however if you're like me you find the "Typical Teenage girl" to be an extremely annoying person, you'll probably want to rip your hair out by the end of the 5th chapter. Overall this book is a good read for middle school girls maybe even freshmen girls, but it was a little easy for my taste.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

hatee thee writingg, lovee thee storyy linee :]

okayy so not to dis ms colasanti...but thee writingg in this bookk is horrbilee. well...maybee not horiblee, but just veryy, veryy badd. at times i would be readingg and go "omg i couldve writeen this" the wiritingg in this bookk has no depth or feelingg, its just flat andd boringg. all tht beingg saidd...thee storyy linee of this bookk is amazingg. tht was thee onlyy reason whyy i didnt return thee bookk. this bookk has a great concept, if yu can see past thee badd writingg. anywayy, i wouldd reccomendd this bookk if yu havee nothingg elsee to read. however, borrow, dnt buy.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Colasanti Disappointment

This wasn't one of my favorites. I was quite disappointed with this one. The story needs substance and excitement. I do agree that it has a very realistic point of view, but the story line is so typical. Girl has a crush on popular surfer boy who ignores the geeky nice guy who has liked her for quite some time and then the girl eventually notices the geek who she refused to give attention to at the beginning. it's the usual plot, I felt like i've read stories like this one too many times. I fell asleep just reading the second chapter. I think Colasanti could have placed a stronger emphasis on the relationship between Nash and Marisa because I truly wanted read about an unpredictable connection between them and about how their bond can grow and change within time. Instead, it was much too dense. Personally, I thought "when it happens" was a better read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Now I don’t know about you but my typical reads are betwee

Now I don’t know about you but my typical reads are between Paranormal YA and New Adult BUT I always have to slip in a good chick lit or realistic fiction to keep the equilibrium, so I think I can officially ad Susane Colasanti to the list of reliable sources.

Waiting for you was a coming of age story of High School Sophomore Marisa. Colasanti built Marisa’s character to be slightly dark and high school bright at the same time, but it was done masterfully. While probably somewhere in Chapter 2 I could tell you what the end of the story looked like, I don’t think the ending was as important as the middle. The “in between” of this book was what did it for me, the building of Marisa’s character, the mystery behind Dirty Dirk, and the relationships between all of the characters. So, overall liked the book, it’s not a book I’ll read again, but it did fulfill my chick lit needs!

Good Read

My daughter loved it and read it in two days.

Loved it

Sooo good couldnt put the book down!

Love it!

Such as a cute romance story!

Predictable&God Awfully Boring

This book when reading and hearing about the radio host and stuff, it was already implied that Derek was the radio host! Way before Marisa, like what the world! I hate when you know what's happening waaaay before the character. And then at the end TAH-DUH... they fell in love, soooo predictable =P

P.S. When It Happens is a way better read, that book blows my mind everytime!