Taylor Blake Is a Legend: The teen debut from the bestselling rom-com author

Taylor Blake is a Legend is a fabulous story of friendship, school and first love, from the bestselling rom-com author, Laura Jane Williams.  A hilarious and heartfelt story that will appeal to fans of Geek Girl and Jacqueline Wilson.

Every teenager knows that the move up to secondary school is not as easy as parents and teachers make out. Being the 'small fish' once again is tough and also a time that many young people find tricky. Relationships with friends you have known forever suddenly seems so much more complicated, while making new friends is far from straightforward. In Taylor, Williams has created a character that many Lower School students will be able to empathise with.

Finding that special someone and the frustration of being the only 'kiss virgin' in her group of friends is almost an obsession for Taylor and she is certain that with the arrival of the French exchange students she will find love and finally experience her first kiss. However, as young readers will appreciate, life isn't that simple.

Written in the first person, in short chapters and interspersed with text messages between Taylor and her two best friends Star and Lucy, this is a fabulous, easy to read story for readers aged 12+, particularly girls. Williams' style of writing makes Taylor's characters believable; her Mother is a single parent and therefore her grandparents play a big part in her life.

The emotional turmoil and misunderstanding that Taylor and her friends experience will resonate with many of its young readers and hopefully help clarify some of these feelings, too. This would make an excellent book for sharing in class, providing some fantastic opportunities for discussion. I really enjoyed this book and would happily recommend it to readers aged 12-14 years. A great read to help teens begin to understand some of the complexity of the emotions created by a close relationship with another boy or girl.

352 pages / Reviewed by Sam

Suggested Reading Age 11+

14-year-old Taylor Blake has never been kissed, and is obsessed with trying to resolve this dilemma. Now that she is in Year 9, she is part of a French exchange programme, and is going to host one of the French students. When she is accidentally paired up with a boy instead of a girl, it seems that all her dreams have come true! With the help of her best friends, Star and Lucy, she is determined to be kissed - but is the handsome Axel really the answer to her problem, or will she find love elsewhere?

Taylor Blake is a Legend is an entertaining, easy read, which will be very popular with teenage girl readers. With its themes of friendship, family and growing up, the story is fast-paced and humorous. Taylor is a bright and popular student, whose ambition is to be a journalist, and one of her articles, on whether girls should be pushed into STEM subjects, is a clever addition to the narrative.

Whilst I cannot see this book being used as a class reader, Taylor's strong ideas about feminism will give the individual reader pause for thought. Taylor has a very supportive family on her mother's side, she was born from a sperm donation so we are not introduced to her paternal family and I feel that this aspect of Taylor's life could have been expanded upon. However, I note that a sequel is in the pipeline, so we may learn more about her father in subsequent books.

Taylor's friends Star and Lucy are in a same-sex relationship; again, this is dealt with in a very matter of fact manner and not expanded upon. However, they are good friends to Taylor and are not afraid to tell her when her first kiss obsession becomes too much.

This is a well-written novel, with and will make a welcome addition to any school library.  I can see readers enjoying and sympathising with Taylor's trials and tribulations, and I look forward to reading the next chapter of her adventures.

352 pages / Reviewed by Beverley Somerset, school librarian

Suggested Reading Age 11+