When Penny Lane started The Lonely Hearts Club, the goal was simple: to show that girls didn’t need to define themselves by how guys looked at them, and didn’t have to value boyfriends over everything else. Penny thought she’d be an outcast for life . . . but then the club became far more popular than she ever imagined it would be.
But what happens when the girl who never thought she’d date a good guy suddenly finds herself dating a great one? She doesn’t need a boyfriend . . . but she wants it to work out with this particular boyfriend. And he wants it to work out with her.
Only, things keep getting in the way. Feelings keep getting hurt. Words keep getting misunderstood.
Penny Lane worked hard to declare her independence. Now she needs to figure out what to do with it — and how to balance what she wants with what everyone else wants. In We Can Work It Out, Elizabeth Eulberg returns to the world of her first novel, The Lonely Hearts Club, and gets to the heart of how hard relationships can be . . . and why they are sometimes worth all the drama and comedy they create.
I was so excited to see this book at the book store. I started reading Elizabeth Eulberg’s books when I was in the eight grade and I havent stopped since. I remember reading Prom and Prejudice when I was in middle school and that book got me hooked on Pride and Prejudice retellings.
Penny is strong and independent but also in need of having her friends approval. I see a lot of myself in Penny, she throws herself into whatever task she has set her mind on and tends to forgot a lot of the other important things that need to get done. She is full of great ideas and wants nothing more than to help her friends and her family. Her boyfriend Ryan Bauer, is by far one of the most perfect book boyfriends. He wants nothing more than to make her happy, plays basketball, is friendly and even volunteers. The one little flaw that Ryan has, that I was able to look past, was that to me at least, it seemed like Ryan couldn’t understand certain things that Penny does. (And to tell you the truth, I don’t think Penny knew why she was doing certain things either.)
He didn’t seem to understand why she didn’t like PDA or why she was always with her friends. Penny on the other hand, is an all or nothing type person, she couldn’t give up doing certain things of her friends. (Which to tell you the truth, did bother me. I’m all for being loyal to friends and friendship being one of the top priorities but being a girlfriend is an important role to play too. And I don’t think Penny really realizes that.)
Both Penny and Ryan have done a lot of growing up in this book. Ryan and Todd doing some growing up and apart and Penny finally confronts the reason for this whole club in the first place. I love how they both do these things and that we get to know both of their families better.
I really hope this isn’t the last we see if these characters. I would love to see more.