REVIEW - Stealing Bradford

Title: Stealing Bradford
Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Christian YA chicklit
Grade: C-

From the back cover:
The Carter House girls are just getting to know one another when the subject of boys comes up.  Rhiannon's dating Bradford, a fellow Christian and the most popular jock in school; Eliza's seeing Harry; and DJ was dating Conner, although now he acts as if he doesn't like her.
Boys aren't always easy to understand, but many girls in the house want a boyfriend--and will do just about anything to get one.  So when Taylor decides to put the moves on Bradford, Rhiannon is shocked and hurt.  Mistakes are made and feelings battered . . . there is forgiveness for some and bitterness for others . . . but at the end of the day, the girls learn a valuable lesson about what it means to be a family. 

My review:
I was really liking this YA christian stuff, but this one might have been too much for me.  It felt very young adult.  To the point where I feel like only a teenager might be able to relate to it.  The writing felt amateur, the storyline was kind of silly.  I just couldn't really get into it.  Also, there was too much talk of people being gay.  Not that any of the characters actually were gay, that we know of, anyway.  But too much of the girls speculating about teachers being gay or other girls being gay, and it felt over the top.

Maybe kids these days really do think about this all the time.  I don't remember thinking along these lines when I was in high school.  It didn't matter to me, and it was none of my business, but I feel like it's half the focus for this novel.  Granted, it's been over ten years since I was in high school, and I know things have changed, but that doesn't mean it's not annoying.  I don't really think I'd recommend this series.  The first one was okay, but this second novel wasn't great.  I'll try one more, and if it doesn't get better, that's it for this series for me.  Too many other excellent books out there.