I Think I Love You

Starred review from March 28, 2011
With its internal character monologues and lively dialogue, this novel works particularly well on audio. Sian Thomas is marvelous in bringing to life 13-year-old Petra, a Welsh girl in 1974 with an obsessive crush on David Cassidy. Her voice perfectly evokes the complex mix of absurdity, yearning, and poignant insecurity of adolescence as Petra struggles to fit in with her female friends and negotiate shifting alliances. Thomas is equally adept as the older, wiser, more reflective adult Petra. In addition to bringing out every subtle nuance of emotion and character, Pearson expertly voices a variety of accents: the thick Welsh of young Petra, the guttural German of her mother, the educated as well as working-class British tones, the American voice of Cassidy himself, and most impressively, the accent of the adult Petra (who has lived in London for many years), a London accent with hints of her native Welsh. A must-listen audio for fans of smart and funny contemporary fictionâor just those looking for inspired audio narration. A Knopf hardcover.

Starred review from October 4, 2010
Pearson (I Don't Know How She Does It) dips into Nick Hornby country in her slick latest. In 1974 Wales, 13-year-old Petra is in love with David Cassidy, an obsession she shares with her best friend, Sharon. When they hear that Cassidy is playing a concert in London, the girls sneak away to see him, bringing Petra into brief contact with Bill, who writes for The Essential David Cassidy Magazine. Nearly 25 years later, Petra is separated and seeing how she had sacrificed her ambitions for her husband's when, after her mother's funeral, she discovers a letter her mother had intercepted years before. The letter was informing Petra she had won the Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz, and her prize was a trip to meet the star in California. A magazine picks up the story of Petra's missed opportunity, and suddenly Petra and Sharon, along with Bill, who now works for this magazine, are headed to Las Vegas for a belated meeting. Petra has a piercing wit and a boundless charm, but it's Pearson's insights into friendship, celebrity worship from the inside out, and the knocks you take in life that create a winning novel of hope, lost and found.