Night Owls by Jenn Bennett, published August 2015 by Simon & Schuster UK (AKA The Anatomical Shape of a Heart).
Read: September 2015
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary/Romance
Source: Purchased
#Pages: 272
Get It Now: Wordery
Goodreads Synopsis: Feeling alive is always worth the risk. Meeting Jack on the Owl – San Francisco’s night bus – turns Beatrix’s world upside down. Jack is charming, wildly attractive… and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. But Jack is hiding a piece of himself. On midnight rides and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who this enigmatic boy really is.
I picked up this read based on the beautiful cover (yes, sometimes I am that shallow), and subsequently discovered that Bennett writes urban fantasy fiction for adults, with this being her debut YA novel. I don’t think I’ve read a lot of authors who do genre cross-overs to this extent, so I was curious how she would tackle a teen contemporary. The overall outcome? Very successfully.
Jack and Bex are reasonably complex teen characters – Jack is from a privileged background and has some family issues going on (mental health related), he’s also an anonymous graffiti artist (in a loveable rogue kind of way). Bex comes from a single parent household, has an out gay brother, and wants to be a medical artist (which is a pretty unusual career choice). For a story that centres on two teen characters and their immediate families, there’s quite a lot going on, which is reflective of real life, but often difficult to translate in a standalone contemporary – Bennett achieves this and then some. On top of all this, parents play an active role in the storyline, which is refreshing as parents are so often absent in contemporary YA, and the story is sex-positive. This in itself was such a winner for me, because realistic portrayals of teen sex scenarios, teen sex conversations, and the reality of teenage hormones and lust are so often avoided, given unnecessary euphemisms, or played down in order to be “safe”.
Bex as a character took me a while to warm to, wheras Jack was incredibly swoony, sweet and broody from the get-go, which just made it easier to connect with him. However, he is described as being ridiculously good looking, which is fine if it’s from Bex’s point-of-view and she happens to think he’s incredibly hot, I’m just getting a little tired reading about all of these amazingly-good-looking-and-they-don’t-realise-how-perfect/hot/charming/toned they are characters. Looking back, very few teenagers can claim those attributes, let alone the rest of the normal and average population as adults! Give me “normal” people, someone!
Overall, this book gave me a big smack in the feels, and was just the right amount of cute and fluffy for a contemporary YA read, while providing a bit more depth and sexy times to entertain an older reader. Just writing this review is really making me want to reread this book… Highly recommended, and I’d be interested in trying out Bennett’s adult urban fantasy series too!
The Rating
4/5
Have you read Night Owls? Or any other books by Jenn Bennett? Let me know in the comments!
Confessions of a Book Geek 
I avoided reading this for ages for no particular reason other than I wasn’t sure about it and I was worried I wanted to buy it because of a pretty cover. Your review has fully convinced me to read this. I love that it’s got complex characters and the fact that it’s sex positive is needed for YA! Must purchase immediately.
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Did you read it? Did you read it?! DID YOU READ IT?! Lol R xx
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Oh I loved this one! I’m glad you enjoyed it. These two are probably one of the most surreal characters I’ve ever read in YA. They’re so quirky and odd and perfect for each other.
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I spotted your review on this one! It was so nice to read about characters that weren’t generic, and the story has stuck with me. R xx
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I love it when writing a review of a book makes me want to read it again! I actually won this one awhile back but haven’t managed to read it yet. This reminds me that I want to pick it up soon!
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Have you picked this one up yet, Nicole? Trying to catch up on my comments and spotted this one! 🙂 R xx
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Sadly, no. BEA books have been taking all of my reading time. I need to start doing Random Reads again so I manage to read at least one backlist book per month!
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Jealous of those BEA reads, though! 😀 R xx
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This cover is so beautiful, I like it more than the US cover. This book in on my tbr-list, but for some reason I haven’t read it yet.
I like that in this book parents play an active role in main character’s lives. There are a lot of YA books with abusive and absent parents, but not enough with positive parent figures. “This book gave me a big smack in the feels, and was just the right amount of cute and fluffy for a contemporary YA read, while providing a bit more depth and sexy times to entertain an older reader.” – this is exactly what I need right now. And I totally agree with you comment about ridiculously good looking characters.
Great review, Rachel! I haven’t read anything by Jenn Bennett yet, but several of my friends highly recommended me her Roaring Twenties series.
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Hey, thanks for commenting 🙂
Night Owls is such a good read if you’re in the mood for that light-hearted contemporary YA, but with enough depth to keep you entertained and hooked! You’ll have to let me know what you think if/when you read it!
Is the Roaring Twenties series the paranormal romance one? If her writing style is anything to go by, I’m sure they’re really good! Going to have to go check them out. Thanks for the rec! R xx
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[…] month I reviewed The Great Gatsby (2.5/5), Night Owls (4/5), and Hot Feminist (4.5/5). I still have tons of reviews to write up, but at least […]
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YAY!!! This was one of my top reads last year and I am soooooooo happy that you ended up enjoying it. YES! The sex positiveness in this book as my favourite thing, I absolutely loved that. More YA fiction should be like that.
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I wish I had rereading time, because this is one I’d love to spend more time with. Maybe someday… R xx
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