Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe Review

Author: Shelley Correl
Release date: May 1, 2012 
Publisher: Amulet
Pages: 299
How I got it: For review via Netgalley 

Big-hearted Chloe Camden is the queen of her universe until her best friend shreds her reputation and her school counselor axes her junior independent study project. Chloe is forced to take on a meaningful project in order to pass, and so she joins her school’s struggling radio station, where the other students don’t find her too queenly. Ostracized by her former BFs and struggling with her beloved Grams’s mental deterioration, lonely Chloe ends up hosting a call-in show that gets the station much-needed publicity and, in the end, trouble. She also befriends radio techie and loner Duncan Moore, a quiet soul with a romantic heart. On and off the air, Chloe faces her loneliness and helps others find the fun and joy in everyday life. Readers will fall in love with Chloe as she falls in love with the radio station and the misfits who call it home.

Consistently fresh and always exciting, Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe was a fun and engaging read with a protagonist unlike any other I've read.

Chloe is bold and outgoing, two things I am definitely not, which made her amazingly fun to read about. It was so different to read about a main character who wasn't shy and waiting around for the guy to make the first move. Speaking of said guy, Duncan was also--in his own way--awesome and their romance made me smile more than once.

The plot moves at a steady pace, and with everything that's going on in Chloe's life, there's plenty of drama to always keep you thoroughly entertained. I loved hearing more about the inner-workings of a radio station, even if it was just a low budget high school radio. It was something else I hadn't read about which made it even cooler.

While I normally like my contemporaries with more depth than WCTIC had, its fun characters and writing style made it a breeze to read, even if it won't stick with me forever. If you're looking for something light and different, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe.

Plot: Fun and well-paced.

Characters: Fun but had some depth.

Writing: Pretty good.

Ending: Fitting.

Kid Friendly? There's some language and mentions of drug abuse

Overall:

I had no trouble reading this in less than 24 hours.

I was completely absorbed in this novel while reading it, but after I finished it I didn't think about it much.