Lisa Shanahan Quotes

Gemma Stone is convinced that it’s always unseemly to chuck a birkett and that it’s actually insane to chuck one in front of a complete stranger.

Raven does come across as the typical bad boy at the beginning, but there is definitely a lot more to his character when you see how he behaves around his brothers and his family in general.

It starts as a funny story about an Aussie girl, her mildly eccentric family and her Bridezilla sister. And that part IS funny--the chapter where Gemma and her family meet the bridegroom’s martial family is hilarious.

For practice, Gemma gets paired up with Raven De Head, a member of the town’s widely known ‘delinquent family’, instead of the guy she hoped for, her crush Nick.

At home, Gemma has to deal with her sister Debbie’s engagement, the soon-to-be in-law family, the war-obsessed Websters and all the other insanities an upcoming wedding brings with it.

Gemma and Raven are amazing characters, fully fleshed out and lovable. I liked how Gemma grew and learned that only because someone comes from a certain family, it doesn’t mean that he is less worthy or not a good friend.

What is it that makes Australian YA so special – hilariously funny and sad at the same time – but just so wonderful and capturing? It’s not that I’ve read heaps of Australian books, but the tendency can’t be denied.

But that was before she fell in love with a boy who barely knows she exists, before she auditioned for the school play, before she met the family of freaks her sister Debbie is marrying into, before the unpredictable Raven De Head took an interest in her, and before she realized that at the right time and for the right reason, a birkett could be a beautiful thing.

Gemma Stone believes she can’t speak in front of people without having to vomit, but when she auditions for the school play (Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’), it turns out she is quite the talent.

Especially the scenes concerning the Websters and the wedding were hilarious, I sometimes laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. On the other side, the scenes concerning the De Head family were sometimes very sad and their situation had an almost hopeless feel to it, especially near the end.