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    For Keeps: A Novel
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    For Keeps: A Novel
    Unavailable
    For Keeps: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    For Keeps: A Novel

    Written by Natasha Friend

    Narrated by Lauren Weisman

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    For sixteen years, Josie Gardner and her mom, Kate, have been a team. It's been the Gardner Girls against the world, and that's how Josie likes it. Until one day, they find out that Paul Tucci, Kate's high school boyfriend-the father Josie has never met-is back in town. Josie's mom suddenly turns back into the heartbroken teenager she was when Paul moved away. Meanwhile, Josie's on the verge of having her first real boyfriend. And when Josie learns some surprising truths about Paul Tucci and the past, she begins questioning what she thought she knew, and finds out what happens when a girl gets the guy she always wanted and the dad she never knew she needed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 6, 2010
    ISBN9781101100370
    Unavailable
    For Keeps: A Novel
    Author

    Natasha Friend

    Natasha Friend is the award-winning author of Where You'll Find Me, Perfect, Lush, Bounce, For Keeps, and My Life in Black and White. She lives in Madison, Connecticut, with her family.

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    Reviews for For Keeps

    4/5

    46 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      From the moment I opened to the first page of For Keeps, I instantly knew I was going to love this book. Told through Josie's perspective - with a fresh, young voice, we learn of her relationship with her young mother - who is as much a parent as a best friend. Josie and her mother, Kate, are as close as a mother and daughter can get. It has always been the two of them against the world -but when Kate suddenly becomes interested in a man, the close-knit relationship with her daughter starts to crumble. Aside from the problems the mother and daughter team are facing - there is also the reality of Josie's dad. Paul Tucci (said dad), has never been in the picture. The thought of him alone can make mature and capable Kate go into a hyperventilating fit. So when Paul's parents move back to town, you know nothing good can come of this... or can it?I really loved this book. From start to finish I was invested in these characters lives. Josie had this strong and memorable voice. She was very mature for her age - yet at the same time she was innocent and gullible. I absolutely loved the relationship between her and Kate. For some reason, parents aren't a big factor in YA books. In fact, in most books they're just someone mentioned in passing. Rarely do you ever see them play a major role. That is not the case in For Keeps - Kate's role in the book is just as important at Josie's. Aside from Josie and Kate, there were some other characters that I loved as well. I absolutely loved Liv, Josie's best friend. She brought a smile to my face every time she came in a room - with her quirky fashion sense, snarky remarks and sarcastic humor. Riggs, Josie's love interest, was also a highlight. I liked the push and pull between them - but I especially liked the way that Josie was able to stand up for herself and her feelings - not letting her love for him blindside her. I love a strong female and you definitely find that in Josie.I think Ms. Friend does a superb job in creating a realistic, heartfelt, coming of age story in For Keeps. The novel exudes love and charm and definitely leaves you feeling good at its closure. This was a very enjoyable read and one that I can highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      Natasha Friend has written four YA novels, but, for some unknown reason, this was the first one that I've read. I must admit, it looks as though I've been missing out!FOR KEEPS is one of those novels that, for the most part, is predictable. Josie has been raised by a single mother, who became pregnant in high school, and has never met her father, the seemingly uncaring Paul Tucci. Josie doesn't mind though, she's got her mom and her best friend Liv - she doesn't need any boys in her life. Then, unexpectedly, Paul Tucci returns to town and the life Josie knows is turned inside out. Perhaps Paul Tucci isn't who she thought he was. And, perhaps, Matt, the boy she desperately doesn't want to like, has a place in her life after all. It isn't often that I truly like the character that is cast as the best friend, but I really enjoyed Liv. She was the perfect foil to Josie's anti-boy stance and she opened Josie's eyes to so many possibilities and ideas that she never would have considered on her own. Josie is such a stubborn character; she needed someone like Liv to pester her into opening her eyes.I very much enjoyed Josie and Matt's relationship. Josie's reluctance to enter into a relationship with any boy - let alone Matt, with whom she has a complicated history - added the perfect amount of tension to the plot. It often seems that after the two main characters finally admit their feelings for one another, the book is all but over, but that wasnt' so with FOR KEEPS. Friend touched on some other true to life issues that often occur in relationships, keeping Matt and Josie's relationship interesting. I found this satisfying and much more realistic, which I think is important in YA literature.I also feel that I must briefly mention the letters. Now, I can't really say what letters. Or who they were from. Or what they were about. All of this information is better uncovered as you read the novel, but for those of you who have already had the pleasure of reading FOR KEEPS: I loved the letters! They were absolutely perfect and allowed me to forge a connection to the character that had written them, a connection that I fear would not have been nearly as strong without said letters.It has been mentioned that the ending of FOR KEEPS was too perfect, but I don't believe this was the case. I like that all the loose ends were wrapped up and the reader is left with a happy image in mind. It might not necessarily be real life, but it isn't supposed to be. Friend wrote a compelling novel that tackled many issues - let Josie have her happy ending.
    • 5/5
      I knew going into this story I was probably going to find it cute, but I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. After all, the idea of the story isn't very original. But For Keeps is filled with great characters and fantastic writing that keeps the pages flipping.My favorite part of the story is the relationship between Josie and her mom, Kate. If parents are even in a YA story, they don't usually play big roles. But Kate was one of the main characters and one of Josie's best friends. I am a big believer that you can be a friend and a parent to your children. I just hope me and my daughter can be as close as Kate and Josie when she is older.Josie was a great character that I think any girl can relate to. You quickly get attached to her and care for her outcome. I loved going with her on her journey as she deals with her grandparents she never knew moving back in town, Her mom getting back in the dating world, and all the other normal stuff teenage girls deal with. She also finds that there are two sides to every story, and she has been missing big pieces in the puzzle.Josie's best friend Liv keeps the story alive. She was a funny character that had me laughing out loud. I also loved how the author gave her her own problems to deal with. often times the best friend's role just seem to be supportive. Seeing the girls helping each other deal with their problems made the friendship real. I also had a soft spot for Josie's grandpa. I thought the way they got to know each other was sweet. And Matt, Josie's love interest, was a cute guy any girl could crush on.The plot is predictable, and usually that would bother me. But the writing was so smooth and the characters were so likable that I didn't have a problem with it. For Keeps is a coming of age, heart felt story that is character driven. It has me thinking of the story long after I finished it. You definitely don't want to miss this one.
    • 4/5
      This is a well written book which got good reviews, so I thought I’d read it. It’s about Josie, a 16 year old girl who is being raised by her single mother who got pregnant with her when she was 16. Josie doesn’t know her father, but does know that he essentially dropped her mother after she got pregnant. However, in the course of the book she learns that the truth she was told throughout her life is not really the truth.The reservations that I have with the book have to do with what I see are inconsistencies with the characters and the images they are supposed to project to the reader. For example, the mother is a strong, beautiful, capable woman – except when she becomes totally incapacitated whenever she sees any reminder of her high school days, and then she depends on Josie to act like the grown-up. Josie’s best friend is supposed to be smart, independent and a great friend, but she came across to me as a real pain because she never respected Josie’s wishes. And the ending, though it all “worked out”, made it seem like all of the problems that Josie’s parents experienced were entirely because other people manipulated them, so the only time they actually made a mistake was when they got pregnant with Josie. I think it would have been more honest if they had been portrayed as people who were overwhelmed as teenagers who did fail from time to time, but who also managed to get back up and try again to do the right thing.However, I think this might really reach a lot of readers who like things more black and white.
    • 4/5
      For the sixteen years of Josie Gardner’s life, it’s only been her and her mom, Kate. Josie’s father, Paul Tucci, moved away with his family, leaving Kate, a high school junior, pregnant, and Josie has never met him. But when Paul’s parents move back to the neighborhood, suddenly things begin to change. Josie nervously dips her toes into a romantic relationship for the first time, and Kate too is involved with another man.So what happens when Kate and Josie’s World of Two is suddenly forced to expand, and even collides with the world of the last man Josie would ever trust—and the one she most wants to?The premise sounds similar to the familial setup of Gilmore Girls, and in a ways it is the story of Lorelai, Christopher, and Rory through Rory’s point of view. And thankfully the “Rory” in Natasha Friend’s story is not as off-putting or unbelievably awkward-pretty as Alexis Bledel. FOR KEEPS is a gentle contemporary read, but the degree to which I was invested in Josie’s story took me by delightful surprise.Josie is a fabulously multifaceted character, with a strong and memorable voice. She’s got snark and guts, even while grappling with her problem of her lack of trust in men. Above all, she is resilient: when bad things occur, she may hide and retract into her shell for a while, but we get to the point where we have faith in her healing soon. The other characters also have good voices, quirky but never stereotypical, though I would have liked to have gotten to learn more about Kate. Kate is the central figure in Josie’s life, but in between worrying about the proximity of her father’s family, and her dealings with her crush, Josie-the-narrator unfortunately forgets to show us the strength and “width” of her relationship with her mother, instead assuming we know what it’s like through generalized “telling” statements. The plot, also, is a bit on the weak side: the story starts off strong, with an incredible protagonist voice, but does quite reach its full potential on the scale of epicness.In spite of those few issues I had with the book, though, I thoroughly enjoyed reading FOR KEEPS. It was my first Natasha Friend novel, but it’s definitely a keeper for me, with my love for its well-voiced MC, and if Natasha’s other books are anything like this one, I will have a new favorite author on the horizon.
    • 3/5
      This wasn’t the book I was expecting, and I mean that in a good way. It’s not that I was expecting it to be bad – I like the premise of the book – but there was more depth in areas I wasn’t expecting, and glossed over areas I thought would be more of a focus for the story. Some people may not like a book going in a different direction than they anticipated, but I love when a book takes me somewhere outside my expectations.Josie and her mom’s relationship starts out like that of a lot of relationships between daughters and single mothers in the sense that it almost resembles a friendship or sisterhood rather than a parent-child relationship. When their relationship becomes strained, instead of trying to assert her role as the parent, Kate fades into the background and does little more than tell Josie she’s out of line. I was a little bothered by this because none of the moms of my friends in school would let their kid get away with some of the things Josie did. However, this did seem in line with Kate’s personality. I’m not saying Kate was passive or weak, but it seemed like even though she wasn’t really doing anything wrong, per se, she still felt guilty about how it was affecting Josie and took her reaction as punishment for thinking of herself. Josie, on the other hand, was incredibly believable as a sixteen-year-old in this situation.Even though I sometimes found Liv to be overbearing, I liked the fact that she often came across as the voice of reason. It is through some of the conversations Liv has with Josie that Josie realizes that she’s being childish, or petty, or just plain mean. The dynamic between Liv’s family and Josie and her mom was refreshing, as it is something that is rarely seen in books. The idea of people coming together and forming their own family, built not on blood but on the bonds they share, is one of my favorite themes.The bond between Josie and Paul Tucci’s family was well-written. I was a little afraid that it was going to closely resemble Looking for Alibrandi, but it doesn’t. The way in which Josie comes to know the family she never really wanted to know is not only touching, but it also happens in a way that doesn’t seem forced or manipulated for dramatic effect. I like the way in which Kate and Paul’s story is revealed in its entirety.This was a quick read for me, and even though there were quite a few plot threads happening simultaneously, it never seemed like too much or like anything was superfluous to the story. All the characters had such depth that I enjoyed reading each of their stories.