Donut Days by Lara Zielin

Summary/Cover Image taken from Publisher's Website:

Emma has a lot going on. Her best friend’s not speaking to her, a boy she’s known all her life is suddenly smokin’ hot and in love with her, and oh yes, her evangelical minister parents may lose their church, especially if her mother keeps giving sermons saying Adam was a hermaphrodite.

But this weekend Emma’s only focused on Crispy Dream, a hot new donut franchise opening in town, where Harley bikers and Frodo wannabes camp out waiting to be the first ones served. Writing the best feature story on the camp for the local paper might just win Emma a scholarship to attend a non- Christian college. But soon enough Emma finds the donut camp isn’t quite the perfect escape from all her troubles at Living Word Redeemer.

In a fresh, funny voice, newcomer Lara Zielin offers up a mesmerizing, fast-paced narrative full of wit and insight.

Review:

Donut Days is just like a donut, because it's filled with the good stuff and it's easy to eat (or read in this case) it right up. Though, the good part of this one is that's it not filled with bunches of calories. ;)

Donut Days tells the story of the compacted life of Emma. Not only has her preacher mother just announced to everyone in their congregation that Adam was a hermaphrodite and is facing the consequences from that, but her best friend isn't talking to her and she's still dealing with the whole Jake-problem. Though, now is not the time for that. Instead it's the time for her to focus on the scholarship Crispy Dream is offering to the student with the best written story about the opening of its newest store. And the thing is she needs this badly, but as it seems fate doesn't want her to have it because of all the newest dilemmas it's throwing in her way. So will Emma get the scholarship? Will she repair her friendships? And will her parents fix the problems her mom has created? Only time and more pages, as well as donuts, well tell.

Emma was such a lovable protagonist, definitely one of my favorites out of books I've read so far this year. I loved the fact that while she made mistakes she learned from them as well. Also, not only was she really funny but she had a heart of gold as well. Another favorite character of mine was Jake, the boy who has a past with. He was the typical swoon-worthy college boy. And I also enjoyed the friendships she made with Harley bikers and saw that you can't always judge people by first appearances.

While the plot of this was predictable, I never once stopped enjoying it for one second. I especially loved the way that Lara Zielin tended to foreshadow past events because it made me curious at what would occur next. Further more, I enjoyed the different questions and discussion this novel sparked about sexism in the church and about the creation of the world  to what exactly makes you a 'religious' person. It was intriguing, insightful, and something that I truly think sets this apart from the typical teen read, and I also have to add that I loved the fact that while it talked about faith (which you can probably infer from what I previously said) it was never preachy.

And this review wouldn't be complete if I didn't talk about Zielin's writing. It was like addicting, sugary goodness, something that I'm most definitely looking forward to reading more of in the future.

In all, Donut Days is a fabulous novel that I can't help but highly suggest.

Grade: A-

Donut Days is now out!

Source: Author. Thanks, Lara!