No one at Kayla’s school knows she’s the famous Oracle of Dating—the anonymous queen of dating advice, given through her own Web site. Kayla doesn’t even have a boyfriend. Two relationship disasters were enough to make her focus on everyone else’s love life. But then her advice backfires on her own best friend. And Kayla starts to seriously obsess about Jared Stewart—the very cute, very mysterious new guy in school. Suddenly, the teen queen of advice needs her own oracle of dating–and she knows just where to find one…
The Oracle of Dating was a fun, bubblegum YA novel. What made it unique from the dozens of novels it is shelved with is that the main character ran her own advice column. Results weren’t unbelievably explosive, but when Kayla gave bad advice to her friends or herself, she reaped the benefits of her actions. The love interest was the bad boy you kept hoping was better than his reputation, and the foreshadowing for the relationship started in the first chapter, and built in each chapter. I was happy with the conclusion, but a little upset it didn’t seem open to a sequel. Perhaps I’m wrong, and the oracle will return in a year or two with more advice.
The voice of the novel was young. Perhaps I’ve just spent too much time away from YA, but I can see this novel appealing to 12 to 14 year old readers, curious what high school and dating are like. I can see readers of any age reading this book, if only to page through the blogs Kayla wrote about flirting and when to move on.
ebook ARC provided by Teen Harlequin via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers. Originally published on July 7, 2010.