Review: Promposal by Rhonda Helms

Review

Promposal by Rhonda Helms

Publication Date: February 10, 2015

Page Count: 224

Published by: Simon Pulse

Source: eArc received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

promposal (n.)--an often public proposal, in which one person asks another to the prom, eliciting joy or mortification.

Camilla can't help hoping her secret crush, Benjamin, might randomly surprise her out of the blue with a promposal. However, when she's asked to prom by an irritating casual acquaintance--wearing a fancy tux and standing in front of a news crew--she's forced to say yes. Yet all hope's not lost. A timely school project gives Camilla a chance to get closer to Benjamin...and it seems like the chemistry between them is crackling. But is she reading into something that isn't there?

Joshua, Camilla's bestie, has been secretly in love with his gay best friend, Ethan, since middle school. Just as he decides to bite the bullet and ask Ethan if he'll go to prom with him, even if just as friends, he gets a shocking surprise: Ethan asks Joshua for help crafting the perfect promposal--for another guy. Now Joshua has to suppress his love and try to fake enthusiasm as he watches his dreams fall apart...unless he can make Ethan see that love has been right in front of his eyes the whole time.

The road to the perfect promposal isn't easy to navigate. But one thing's certain--prom season is going to be memorable.

When I first heard about this book I thought it sounded like a fun contemporary. It was pretty good and I ended up enjoying it. It was cute, sweet, and angst all rolled into one story.

Told in dual POV in alternating chapters from Camilla and Joshua, the story follows the two best friends as they navigate the end of senior year, culminating in the celebration of Prom. Camilla and Joshua both have their hearts set on the perfect Prom dates, but what will they do when things don't go their way?

I found the characters to be mostly likable, and I enjoyed reading about them. I thought Camilla was just okay, but I really enjoyed Joshua more. He was such a great friend and he was fun and interesting to read about. It was a little harder to get a good feel for Ethan, but I found myself liking him because Joshua loved him so much. The story allowed Camilla (and the reader) the time to get to know Benjamin better. I wasn't sure about him at first, but I ended up really liking him.

Promposal is an appropriate title for this book, because that's ALL the story was about. The entire school was Promposal crazy, and at times it was a bit too much to take. I would have preferred to read about the characters doing something other than obsessing over promposals for the entire book. Some of the characters came off as quite immature at times, and there was too much whining going on. Do you want to know what would have made this book totally awesome? If it had been only the gay story between Joshua and Ethan. Because to me that was the most intriguing aspect of the story.

Promposal was pleasantly enjoyable, but I felt the story didn't have enough substance to be deep or meaningful. The ending played out perfectly and really wrapped up the story well. Overall, this was very clean read with nothing that would be inappropriate for younger teen readers.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars