Band Geek Love by Josie Bloss

All band, all the time. That's how trumpet goddess Ellie Snow has made it to senior year. No drama, no dating. Just keeping lock-step within the safe precision of the Winslow Marching Band. She's a fierce section leader now, and so over the heart-crushing social disaster of her freshman year. No boy is going to ruin Ellie's shining moment-her senior solo performance at the homecoming game.

And then Connor Higgins shows up. Not even Ellie can resist the trumpet player who could be a model for Abercrombie & Fitch. It's a hook-up made in band-geek heaven! But Ellie's not ready to publicize their romance, not even to her best friends. After all, Connor's just a sophomore. What would everyone say? Breaking formation and revealing her true self would be like . . . marching on the field completely naked!

Then Ellie discovers the flipside of secrets and how it feels to be shut out by the ones she loves.

---------------

Thoughts in a nutshell:
I was slightly disappointed by this novel. I don't play any instruments myself so it was something new and interesting for me to read about a girl who is so immersed in the band. But that's pretty much where my feelings for it started to go downhill. Ellie was unneccessarily dramatic and that got on my nerves because I'm not a dramatic person and I don't like to be around/read about people that make a huge deal out of every little thing.

Characters:
Like I said before, Ellie got on my nerves. She overreacted, overanalyzed, and basically every over_____________(you fill in the blank) you can think of. That didn't appeal to me but if that description sounds like you, someone you know, or someone you'd like to read about, you may be able to put up with her better than I did.

Ellie had two best friends, Kristen and Jake, who were the polar opposite of her. Where she was serious, they were relaxed. Where she was uptight, they were outgoing and comfortable. They were nice dramatic foils. (Yes, I paid attention in Advanced English 9 last year.)

Connor, Ellie's semi-boyfriend, was one of my favorite characters in the whole book. He was calm and generally a nice guy. He kind of reminded me of Tristan in The ABC's of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro because they were both younger yet more mature and comfortable with themselves. Which is definitely not a bad thing.

Plot:
The story starts off when Ellie finds out that a new band member will be joining her section a week before the season is due to start, leaving her angry and exasperated. But then she starts having feelings for this hot, young someone which she just can't handle because a) she's his section leader and b) he's two years younger than her! Lots of drama and confusion ensue.

Overall:
The writing was good but the subject matter and plot weren't my style. I'll probably still read the sequel, Band Geeked Out, just to find out if it gets any better.

Cover:
Cute. The trumpet is very fitting. The bar over her eyes makes it different.

3 out of 5 stars Recommended if you:
-consider yourself a band geek
-like reading books in which the main character is very engrossed in marching band
-like musical books