I have finished Brothers, Boyfriends and Other Criminal Minds by April Lurie. With three hit men working for the Italian Mafia on her street, April runs into some problems. First, her best friend and she have just been hired by one of the hit men to do a little job for him, and they’re unsure if this means they’re in. Second, she’s totally crushing on one guy who doesn’t really see her, hanging out with another guy she barely knows, and is confused by her brother’s friends’ intentions toward her. Third, her parents are on her back, thinking that she is going psycho and emo, and are convinced that they need to regulate her life. Lastly, her brother is making the biggest mistake of his life by falling in love with a mobster’s daughter. I’m not sure what April’s going to do to fix it.
First, April and Brandi’s job walking a Larry, mobster’s son, to school and back is not going as planned. Week after week, the girls find money hidden in their notebooks. Hundred dollar bills, and, after a while, April receives a five-hundred dollar bill. April thinks that Larry’s dad, ‘Soft Sal’ Luciano is doing the deed. When April asks him though, he denies any knowledge of it and seems surprised that she doesn’t want it. He also gives her information about her brother and where he stands in this fiasco. But things are just getting too thick, too quick.
Second, April is getting closer to bad-boy Dominick and good things come out of it. She eats lunch with him and Larry’s band in the music room. Even the music teacher, Mr. Ruffalo, decides to give her piano lessons when he finds out she used to play. Her parents are much happier when they learn this and allow her to see Dom. She also starts playing tennis with Brandi, Bert and Walt in the park and at the courts, also relieving her parents. The only bad thing is that making out in the hall with her new ‘boyfriend’, Dom, she’s always late to class, and her teacher is mad at her.
Until she writes an amazing play. She only shows the play to Little Joe, her brother’s best friend, who things are getting complicated with. Ever since the incident at the beach, Joe has seemed different to April. He’s always been nice, but now he’s sweet; he’s always liked her, but now he likes her. He always wants to talk to her alone and is always jealous and moody when Dom is around. Brandi picks up on the signal, but April doesn’t, not until he tells her. But unfortunately she has a boyfriend and they decide not to get involved. April has bigger problems anyway. Matt and Bettina, whose father is one of Colombo’s Capo’s, are ‘in love’ and Matt doesn’t think he’s in trouble. But when something happens that send Matt off the deep end, April has to put things back into perspective for him and her.
It’s very hard to let go of the things you’ve loved for so long, but that’s what April, Matt and Bettina have to do. Sometimes you have to let go, even when you don’t want to, because it’s best for you. If you dwell too long on something you cannot have, then you fall apart. April and Matt share this lesson and help each other out. Things fall back to normal at the end of the book, and April has a huge guy-related choice to make. You’ll be surprised and happy with the one she picks. I know I was; and I was happy with the whole book. It talks about things that you should be uncomfortable with, but that people need to talk about. We need to talk about our losses, in order to get over them. I loved the book and thought it was well written.
Boyfriends and Other Criminal Minds by April Lurie
RED’S ALL STAR RATING: 3 ½ stars. It was really good and It was fascinating about the mob.
MASS APPEAL: Girls more than boys, but you never know who’d like it.
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