Come on, admit it, didn’t we all have a terrible, wonderful, all-consuming crush on a teen pop sensation sometime during our youth? Author Allison Pearson has taken that premise (a deeply personal one for the author) and turned it into a winning, engaging and sweet novel. In I Think I Love You, we meet Petra, a 13-year-old Welsh teenager. She and her friends are obsessed with David Cassidy, who in 1974 is the teen sensation of the world. Petra and her friends read The Essential David Cassidy fan magazine with religious fervor and take each and every word as the ultimate truth. If only it were true, but no. Unfortunately for recent journalism graduate Bill those pearls of pop wisdom are crafted, much to his unending embarrassment, by him. The story unfolds and each chapter tells us more about these two likeable characters in both 1974 and then in 1998 when Petra, now grown with her own daughter and a troubled marriage is attending her mother’s funeral. She discovers that her mother hid her prize-winning ticket to meet David all those many years ago. Pearson does a great job of capturing the essence of teen self-discovery, and delving into the real meaning of love and relationships. The introspection of the two characters is honest and truthful and the story intertwines into a sweet ending.

Laura J.