ARC Review: Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall

Title: Signs Point to Yes
Author: Sandy Hall
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Rating: 3/5
Paperback, 288 Pages
Publication Date: October 20th, 2015
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Summary: Jane, a superstitious fangirl, takes an anonymous babysitting job to avoid an unpaid internship with her college-obsessed mom. The only problem? She’s babysitting the siblings of her childhood friend and new crush, Teo. Teo doesn’t dislike Jane, but his best friend Ravi hates her, and is determined to keep them apart. So Teo’s pretty sure his plans for a peaceful summer are shot. His only hope is that his intermittent search for his birth father will finally pan out and he’ll find a new, less awkward home. Meanwhile, at Jane’s house, her sister Margo wants to come out as bisexual, but she’s terrified of how her parents will react. In a summer filled with secrets and questions, even Jane’s Magic 8 ball can’t give them clear answers, but Signs Point to Yes. 

I received an ARC copy of Signs Point to Yes through Swoon Reads, and when I got my copy I was so excited that I was jumping up and down. I'm a huge fan of Sandy Hall, especially falling in love with her debut novel, A Little Something Different. (You can read my review for that book by clicking here.) 

I also met author Sandy Hall at BookCon and she and fellow Swoon Reads author Temple West were two of the sweetest authors around, which made me even more excited to get my hands on this book. I wasn't able to read A Little Something Different as an ARC, so, needless to say, I was super stoked to get the change to read Signs Point to Yes as an ARC.

I liked this book, I really did. Hall has a distinguishable tone in her writing, one that's hard to explain unless you read the books themselves. She manages to turn even third person POV books into something that everyone can relate to, and it isn't difficult at all to get into the heads of all of the main characters - Jane, Teo, and even Margo. 

The actual plot itself was pretty cute, too. Jane ends up having to babysit Teo's younger half-sisters, which gets a bit awkward because apparently Jane and Teo had some sort of history that makes them being face to face on a regular basis again a bit awkward. Not to mention the fact that Teo's absolute best friend, Ravi, hates Jane's guts, for a reason she has absolutely no idea about - and Teo isn't all that sure, either. So when Jane accepts the job, things aren't just awkward on her end - they're awkward for everybody.

The one thing in this book that bothered me a little bit was that the situation between Jane and Teo in the past isn't really explained. It's briefly touched on, just enough that you know they used to be friends and now aren't, but the plot was severely underdeveloped in that area. It would've made more sense for Hall to write Jane and Teo as schoolmates and strangers and not give them any sort of past, because it isn't touched on at all anyway so you're left not really knowing what went on between Jane and Teo at all before the time period that the story picks up in. I suspect that it was just because the two of them grew apart as they got older and Ravi came between their friendship, but my suspicions are neither confirmed nor denied. It just really isn't touched on at all.

The plot of the story itself reminds me a lot of Paper Towns by John Green, which I don't really mind, since John Green is my favorite author of all time. It has the same basis as it gets towards the end (minor spoilers here so go on to the next paragraph if you haven't read the book yet): A group of mismatched friends going on a daring road trip to go find and save someone from a seemingly terrible doom. For Q in Paper Towns it may have been saving Margo from herself, but in Signs Point to Yes it has more to do with getting Teo back to Jane so he could think rationally and she could finally tell him how she feels about him.

All in all, Signs Point to Yes was a cute summer read that I enjoyed and definitely would recommend to anybody looking for a good book to bring along with them to the beach this summer. Sandy Hall is a great writer and even greater person, and I've been impressed with both of her books so far. I definitely hope she writes another because I'd love to read that one, too! I've been thoroughly satisfied with all of the Swoon Reads books I've read so far, and I'm glad to see the publishing outlet getting more and more successful. :-)

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