Review: And For Your Information by Denise Deegan

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

Everyone thinks they know who I am - ditzy Sarah, who cares more about appearances than she does about anything real. And yeah, I do care about what people think of me.

Take my friends Alex and Rachel. We all go to Strandbrook College, Dublin. We're supposed to be best friends. But Alex and Rachel - they're really close. They tell each other things that they would never tell me. I try not to mind.

And then there's Simon. He's my sort-of boyfriend but we hardly see each other. And when we do, I feel like he doesn't really 'see' me, you know?

Everything's such a mess right now. My dad left us to be with Her; my mum is really angry all the time; and my brother Louis, he just doesn't care.

I guess that's why the shoplifting started. It makes me feel good. In control.

I just want everything to change. And it does. The day I got caught . . .

Review:

After reading And by the Way, the first in Butterfly series, I couldn't wait to see what was up next for Rachel, Alex, and Sarah, and just my luck, I had a copy of And for Your Information, the second one in the series, already in my possession. So I quickly dove right in, and oh my gosh, I was BLOWN away to say the least! I thought  And by the Way was good but this one was just its own kind of brand of good- amazing more like it! It was bittersweet, heartwarming, romantic, emotional...the list of adjectives goes on and on.

And for Your Information tells the story of Sarah, best friend to Alex (And by the Way's narrator) and Rachel (the narrator of the upcoming third book). In the first book, I wasn't the biggest fan of Sarah. She seemed a bit immature as well as goofy and not the greatest friend out there. However, in this one, I truly got to see what kind of person she is deep down, and I was pleasantly surprised. She's not half as flaky and silly as she appears. She's actually really sweet and funny, and throughout the book she really grew up to be someone great. I especially loved seeing her begin to develop a Shane, a boy dealing with several problems of his own. Shane was a lot like Sarah in some ways, because how he was at first didn't indicate at all what he turned out to be, and I really liked that about him. Plus I loved the way he was with Sarah. He played a big part in her growing up, and to be honest, it was just sweet seeing them fall in love.

The plot in this was a big steep up from And by the Way, because while And by the Way took a little while to get off the ground, this one was an action packed ride from beginning to end. I really enjoyed learning as well as seeing more about Sarah's life, especially when her older brother Louis was involved, and as mentioned before, I loved seeing her relationship with Shane bloom. In most ways, it wasn't at all like the typical YA romance, and that's one of the things I enjoyed most about it. It was innocent as well as surprising and bittersweet. I don't want to give too much away about it (because it's part of what makes the book so good), but I will say I didn't have one dry eye at the end. Moving on, I really enjoyed seeing more of Alex and Rachel, because while they may think there stories would be on a standstill a lot happened in this one that changed everything, especially in Alex's life. While the changes were at times very surprising, I ended up really loving the direction Denise took the book in, and I'm excited to see where everything is going to end up in the third book.

Lastly, Denise Deegan's writing truly improved in this one. She truly brought the characters and their emotions off the page and to life. She also never sugarcoated anything in this, especially towards the end, and I really respected that about her.

Heartbreaking, bittersweet, and simply spectacular, And For Your Information by Denise Deegan is a great addition to the Butterfly novels! I simply can't wait to see what she has in store for us next.

Grade: A+

And For Your Information (Amazon, Book Depository, Goodreads) is now out!

Source: Publicist at Hachette Ireland- thanks Joanna!

Sidenote: While this is a sequel to And By The Way, this one can easily be read on its own.