Review: A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

From Goodreads: The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common - they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out. But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship. Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are meant to be together ...

My Rating: 1 heart 

Thoughts on the Novel: Have you ever looked at a book, and despite the great reviews for it, known instinctively that it wasn’t for you; but you read it anyway because so many other people liked it … and you end up wishing you hadn’t? Well, that was my experience with A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall.

One of the reasons I was so resistant to reading A Little Something Different was because I thought the concept sounded gimmicky. And I was right! The book just had too many unnecessary narrators. For example, I could have done without the POVs of the bench that thought Gabe’s derriere was perfect and could tell what he was doing or how he was feeling based on the way he was sitting, or the squirrel that claimed to not understand human but could still somehow recap exactly what Gabe and Lea were saying. As well, I found it hard to care about any of the narrators, and thought some of the guys sounded a bit like they were written by a female trying to get into the mindset of a guy.

The romance – it took Gabe and Lea almost a whole school year to get together! (Seriously, grow a pair, and stop wasting my time!) – also got annoying after a while because it involved so much telling. I really have no idea why all these characters kept talking about how much chemistry Gabe and Lea had when in reality, the two were barely even talking to each other and were pretty much strangers. Here’s what I wanted to say to some of them:

• Inga (Gabe and Lea’s professor) – Just because you think Gabe and Lea belong together in your head, it is not okay to belittle another female student (Hillary, who is portrayed as a ditz) for having a conversation with Gabe. Please act like a professional! (Inga is not the only female character in the book to call Hillary names.)
• Frank (a Chinese delivery guy) – You deliver to college students living in dorms. Why is it such a big deal for you if two people living in the same building have the same order? How could this not have happened to you numerous times before?
• Bob (a bus driver) – Yawn, moving on!
• Charlotte and Victor (a Starbucks barista and a classmate) – I liked you guys until you had a personality transplant (and started shipping Gabe and Lea). (Also, I worked for a year in a coffee shop during high school, and never stood around making up stories or wondering about the people that I served.) 

I considered DNF’ing A Little Something Different before reaching its midpoint, but then kept on reading it because I wanted to know why Gabe was – as Lea says – so weird. Once I found out, I figured I might as well finish the book because there was only a little more left to read. 

A Little Something Different was released in August 2014 by Swoon Reads. 

Comments About the Cover: It’s cute, and all the red can be associated with love.