Title: Edna in the Desert
Author: Maddy Lederman
Publisher: eLectio Publishing, LLC
Publication date: 2016
Page count:173
Age recommendation: 13
How I came across the book: ANOTHER REVIEW REQUEST!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 (Thank you, Maddy!)
Can a Beverly Hills teen survive without a smart phone, Internet, and TV? Edna will find out.
Edna is thirteen, a precocious troublemaker wreaking havoc at her Beverly Hills school. Her therapist advocates medication, but her parents come up with an alternative cure: Edna will spend the summer in the desert with her grandparents. Their remote cabin is cut off from cell phone service, Internet and television. Edna’s determined to rebel until she meets an older local boy and falls in love for the first time. How can she get to know him from the edge of nowhere?
Praise for Edna in the Desert
“I loved this realistic, funny-and-yet-equally-serious, pitch-perfect novel about a young teen with no distractions—other than herself. What Edna learns over her summer in the desert makes for one of my favorite books of the year.”
Melissa Senate
Author of See Jane Date and The Mosts ~ Goodreads
So, I was expecting this to be like The It Girl. Fluffy, fun, and not so serious. But it wasn’t! Edna was a total BRAT! And if it had been in first POV it would’ve been unbearable. Luckily, the author knew this and it was in third POV so we had the occasional break. And I also could relate too. Being left in the desert, FOR AN ENTIRE SUMMER, WITHOUT WIFI or ANY notice AT ALL, and not in a city-no-in literally THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! When I think about it, Edna handled it pretty well. The only real problem about Edna is I didn’t see much character development. I think the author could’ve started when whatever happened that made Edna’s parents get rid of her for the entire summer, so then we could see more of what she was like before and after.
The book had a pretty slow start with mostly Edna moping and thinking about her friends back home. Then things start to speed up when she meets handsome, heroic Johnny! It was probably the most insta-insta-love I have ever seen. And I would’ve been fine with it! I mean who doesn’t love a cute summer romance book? But then it turns out Edna is 13 and Johnny is 17. It bothered me, and all their relationship seemed to be was kissing and wanting to kiss. *sigh* (though it was never more than that). Aside from that, it was good!
It also felt very…heavy, and I actually felt very sad like I was the poor soul stuck in the desert, all alone, with nothing. No hopes, no dreams. Nothing. *wipes away tear* *shakes head* So bonus points for making me feel all heavy with emotion like that! #theangstisreal
Fabulous Quotes!
Edna decided to acquire a taste for coffee as another thing to do for the summer. She found it bitter and absolutely hideous, but celebrities were always pictured with a coffee in their hands, and she wanted to know why. It was tolerable if she put enough sugar in it.
…
Grandma had a lot in common with these pioneer women. Her whole life was like being on a cross country trail, except she never went anywhere.
…
She was tempted to call home and ask her father if some horrible incident occurred involving Pineapple Upside-Down Cake…
What Does the Cat Think?
I give this book 3 stars out of 5!
Because the age difference just wierded me out too much
Kitty Cat at the Library 
Other than wondering what was lurking around me, I would love the peace and quiet of the desert. Sounds interesting.
Same here, though the heat would be hard to bear for me. 🙂 Thanks for the comment!