Review: Serial Hottie by Kelly Oram

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

Ellie’s sweet sixteen is a summer of firsts. First car. First kiss. First boyfriend. First serial-killing stalker?

Hockey-obsessed tomboy Eleanor Westley has never been the object of a guy’s affection before. So when the hottest boy she’s ever seen moves in across the street and starts treating her like she’s the center of his universe, naturally she’s going to be a little skeptical. But everything starts to make sense when girls who look just like Ellie start dying all around the city. Obviously the new guy is the killer, and of course he only likes her because he wants to slice her into tiny pieces. Right?

The more Ellie gets to know Seth the more she’s convinced he’s a psychopathic killer. The problem is he’s the sweetest psychopathic killer she’s ever met. Not to mention he’s brutally hot. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t help but fall for him. Will Ellie find true love, or will her summer of firsts turn out to be a summer of lasts.

Review:

Ever since reading Kelly Oram's debut YA Being Jamie Baker back in 2010, I've been dying to read more by her. Therefore, when Kelly emailed me about reviewing Serial Hottie, I jumped at the chance. It sounded amazing, and I was really hoping I would love it just as much as Being Jamie Baker- if not more! While I didn't enjoy it as much as Kelly's first, Serial Hottie was still a fun and fast paced read, one that I really enjoyed!

Serial Hottie introduces the character of Eleanor Westley, a girl who's preparing to have the worst summer of her life. Not only have her best friends (the Js as she calls them) left her for the summer to go to hockey camp, but they've left her be stuck with her shopping obsessed, overly girly sister as her only companion. However, everything changes when the Westley's get a new neighbors. One of those neighbors is Seth who turns out to be a super hottie as well as super obsessed with Ellie. Ellie can't deny it, Seth is pretty adorable and swoon worthy, but there's just something creepy about him. So when girls, girls who look just like her, around the Detroit area start being killed, Ellie begins to worry: is the boy from next door Detroit's latest mass serial killer? Only time and more pages can tell in this suspenseful and intriguing read bound to have anyone reading late into the night.

Ellie was not the typical YA protagonist. She was a tomboy who was obsessed with hockey and video games. She could stand her own in a fight. And she had a snarky, tell it like it is attitude. Basically, this girl had major spunk, and because of this, I found her to be such a fun MC to read about it! It was always interesting to see her get into trouble. Plus her comments usually caused a laugh or two. But mostly, I just found her to be such a refreshing change. One of the things I loved most about her character, though, was seeing her friendships and relationships with the other characters. My favorite was her one with her sister Angela. Angela was the total opposite of Ellie, and at the beginning, they couldn't relate or get along for beans. However, by the end, they end up being quite the duo, making it another refreshing aspect of Serial Hottie. Seth was someone I was always a little leery about it. He had good intentions and he did really like Ellie but he just came off just a little too creepy for my tastes...

The plot in this was full of suspense, as mentioned above. The sub plot containing the serial killer always contained so many twists and turns, and even at the last few chapters, I was still having a hard time guessing who it would end up being...there were so many possibilities. As I said before I had a hard time liking Seth, and that ended up bringing the novel down a few notches in my eyes. For most of the book, I found his obsession with Ellie to be a little weird, and honestly, there were some points were I was hoping she would end up with someone different. However, by the end, I ended up liking him a bit more, but still, he was just an odd guy.

Oram's writing was really good, though! I thought she did a great job of crafting the plot as well as the characters. I also especially enjoyed how she included Ellie's family in the book...you don't often see parents or siblings in YA too much, let alone the MCs actually getting along with them, so that was fun to see!

In all, Serial Hottie was a fun and fast paced book, one I definitely recommend you check out!  As for me, I'm now eagerly awaiting Kelly's next book V is for Virgin, which comes out this December!

Grade: B+

Serial Hottie (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads) is now out! AND it's only $3.99 for an eBook...how can you go wrong with that kind of price? :)

Source: Author- thanks Kelly!