Review: Young Adult: Love And Other Drama-Ramas by Sarah Webb
Walker Books, £5.99
The fourth book in Sarah Webb's Ask Amy Green series, Love and Other Drama-ramas, is a welcome addition, not only to her series but to this fantastic year of girls' teen and tween fiction by Irish authors, which also includes books by Anna Carey, Denise Deegan, Laura Jane Cassidy and Judi Curtin.
Webb's writing for adults feeds in well to the series, with both vivid teen characters and flawed, real, and occasionally useful adults making appearances.
Amy and her 17-year-old aunt, Clover, are used to solving problems in real life and for The Goss magazine. Now, though, the mysterious behaviour of Bailey Otis, new boy at school, and new boyfriend of Amy's best friend Mills, seems like more than even they can handle.
Even though Bailey and Mills are crazy about each other, he turns up at a concert one night with another girl in tow -- and there's clearly something in his past he's keeping secret.
Amy is determined to figure out what's going on, and in between facing her own blast-from-the-past at college, Clover is also there to help out.
But it's Amy's often-ditzy mum, Sylvie, who steps up to the plate in a big way when Amy's scheme to help Bailey goes awry and he ends up in serious danger.
While there isn't as much about Amy's own problems in this volume -- some of the series' strongest moments have been about her balancing act between giving good advice and helping herself -- it's still a terrific read, with plenty of humour and (as the title suggests) drama-rama!
Claire Hennessy
Originally published in
