Review: Far From Normal by Becky Wallace

Far From Normal
by Becky Wallace

September 22, 2020
240 pages

Goodreads Summary:

From Stealing Home author Becky Wallace comes a Devil Wears Prada-inspired YA romance, in which “normal girl” Maddie must repair the image of Major League Soccer’s bad boy to ace her internship. A perfect read for fans of Morgan Matson and Miranda Kenneally.

Maddie McPherson is sick of Normal—both her hometown of Normal, Illinois and being the ‘normal’ sibling. But when she lands a summer internship with a sports marketing firm, she finally has a chance to crawl out of her genius brother’s shadow. Not to mention, a glowing letter of recommendation could secure her admission to her dream college.

But Maddie’s nickname is “CalaMaddie” for a reason, and when the company tasks her with repairing the image of teen soccer phenom Gabriel Fortunato, she wonders if she’s set herself up for embarrassment. Gabriel is a tabloid magnet, who’s best-known for flubbing Italy’s World Cup hopes. As Maddie works with him to develop “pleasant and friendly” content for social media, she also learns he’s thoughtful, multi-talented, and fiercely loyal—maybe even to a fault. Falling for a footballer is exactly how CalaMaddie would botch this internship, but with the firm pressuring her to get the job done, perhaps her heart is worth risking?

Review

With many cute moments alongside some more serious times, Far From Normal was a short and sweet story. I enjoyed my time with it.

From the beginning of Far From Normal, Maddie had a lot to learn. It took some tripping and falling (literally) for her to find herself but I was pleased to see how much growth she accomplished by the end of the book. Maddie displayed strength and maturity. 

I was so surprised that Maddie told her older brother everything. It's refreshing to see a close sibling relationship (especially in a brother/sister pair). Max was her go-to person and it was the sweetest to see them joke and tease around. They knew each other well. "If there's one thing I've learned from Max, who is almost always right, it's that if you don't give him something to argue with, he can't." (ARC, p. 66).

There were some major drama regarding Gabriel which I felt like were a bit brushed over. Mainly his sister's presence and his big career decision weren't well-addressed. I would've liked to see a little more closure there than what we got. Having said that, I'm glad Gabriel was able to open up to Maddie. They were sweet together.

Far From Normal is a smart journey of self-discovery. It's a story to relax in and maybe learn a few things from ;)

*I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not affected in any way. Any quotes included in my review were taken from the ARC I received.