Star Audio Book Review: I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson; Read by Sian Thomas

What would you do if you had the chance to reconnect with your childhood dreams of meeting a teen idol rock star? This is the very predicament that Welsh woman, Petra, finds herself in as she’s cleaning out her mother’s attic just days after her funeral and stumbles upon a letter informing her teen self that she’d won a contest to meet David Cassidy some twenty-four years ago!

 As teens, best friends, Petra and Sharon spent endless hours, days, nights fawning over David Cassidy of The Partridge Family fame but as the girls lived on one side of the world, and David, on another, in Los Angeles, the closest they ever got to him was through his exposes and personal Q&As in the magazine, The Ultimate David Cassidy. They adored him. David could do no wrong in their eyes; even when he announces his final farewell tour, the girls are not mad with their idol and make every effort possible to get to the show.

Across the ocean, in another Land, in the not-so glamorous world of celebrities and magazines, meet Bill, writer behind the personality of “David Cassidy” in the The Ultimate David Cassidy magazine. It was his daily struggle and constant conflict that he wrote under such false pretenses by pretending to be the man that so many girls around the world lived and breathed on his every word. But in all practicality, he had to pay the bills just as much as any other “David” didn’t he? And, really, wouldn’t he be doing these girls a disservice by not responding to their countless letters. Surely the real David Cassidy hadn’t the time for it did he?

Fast forward 24 years, when Petra finds her winning letter and phones The Ultimate David Cassidy to claim her prize. The magazine, at first shook by the call, finds no problem with honoring her winnings and agrees to send both Petra and Sharon out to Las Vegas to meet David Cassidy, himself. However, Petra and her teenage dreams are in for a reality check when she is introduced to head writer for The Ultimate David Cassidy magazine, Bill. Listen to find out how Petra deals with this crushing blow to her childhood idolization or will it even matter now 24 years later?

A fun blast to the past. Told in a soothing and articulate fashion by British narrator, Sian Thomas, who has read countless audio book productions before, including Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry.  

Bonus: An afterword includes an Interview with the real David Cassidy, himself, conducted by the author, Allison Pearson.

3/5 Stars

         

For more information on Allison Pearson visit her Facebook fan page, follow her on Twitter or check out her latest thoughts in her column in the Daily Telegraph. Her first novel was I Don’t Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother.