Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl is about a set of eighteen year old identical twins, Cath and Wren, who are starting their first year of college.  They both wrote Simon Snow fan fiction growing up and have a large following.  Wren decides to move on to boys, drinking, and partying once she is on campus, while Cath is still living her life via the Internet.  She attends her classes, but she would rather spend her free time locked in her dorm room writing about Simon Snow.

Cath's roommate, Reagan, is a junior and eventually starts to help Cath come out of her shell.  Cath  becomes friends with Reagan's ex-high school boyfriend Levi, which becomes a little awkward as Cath realizes they may be more than just friends.  Levi is the complete opposite of Cath.  He is very outgoing and friendly.  Cath thinks that because he is two years older he is far more worldly and experienced than she is. There is no way they could have anything in common, right? WRONG....

The one thing that I really liked about this story is that it isn't a "boy meets girl they fall instantly in love" sort of story.  Levi and Cath are friends.  They have issues like everyone, but they learn from their mistakes and grow from them in the process.  I was "rooting for them" (if you have read the book...you understand the significance of that sentence) and I was very happy with how it ended.

At the end of every chapter there was an excerpt from one of the Simon Snow books or from some of Cath and Wren's fan fiction.  Cath also reads several sections of her fan fiction to Levi throughout the book.  It was interesting to hear parts of the story, but I found them to be rather confusing.  Do these books really exist?  Maybe it is because I don't know the story or the characters that I couldn't really appreciate those sections as much as I probably should have.

I did love the rest of the story about Cath, Wren, Reagan, and Levi.  They are all such different characters, but they all needed each other in some fashion.  This is the first book of Rainbow's that I have read.  I really enjoyed her writing style and will definitely read more of her books in the futures.