The possibilities of sainthood

GOODREADS: Antonia Lucia Labella has two secrets: at fifteen, she's still waiting for her first kiss, and she wants to be a saint. An official one. Seem strange? Well, to Antonia, saints are royalty, and she wants her chance at being a princess. All her life she's kept company with these kings and queens of small favors, knowing exactly whom to pray to on every occasion. Unfortunately, the two events Antonia's prayed for seem equally unlikely to happen. It's not for lack of trying. For how long has she been hoping to gain the attention of the love of her life – the tall, dark, and so good-looking Andy Rotellini? Too long to mention. And every month for the last eight years, Antonia has sent a petition to the Vatican proposing a new patron saint and bravely offering herself for the post. So what if she's not dead?

But as Antonia learns, in matters of the heart and sainthood, things are about as straightforward as wound-up linguini, and sometimes you need to recognize the signs.

ME: I knew the moment I ran into this book on Goodreads that I would LOVE IT! This is such a great, cute book! I think what attracted me most to this book was the fact that Antonia is a 15 year old in love with saints. Antonia is an Italian American who's family is very old school and have managed to hold on to their Italian culture/traditions. I LOVE THIS! Antonia is such a good kid. She helps out with the family owned market, goes to school, maintains good grades, spends time with elderly neighbors, and deals with her over protective mom. Antonia has two major obsessions in life, the boy from down the street Andy and her saints. She has memorized every saint and their petition specialty. She spends the majority of the book praying and petitioning to different saints as she deals with different situations. Oh and she writes to the Vatican monthly trying to make herself the next living saint.

I am not a religious person but I am spiritual and I find saints fascinating as well. This book is light, cute, innocent and beautiful in its own right. The writing was nice but... There was a point in the book where Antonia kisses a neighbor on the cheek who has been wheelchair ridden for twenty years. She kisses her and tells her everything will be ok. Later that day the neighbor is up and walking for the first time in twenty years! The neighbor keeps saying that Antonia is the miracle worker. She also kisses a booboo that two different kids got and they both healed quickly after receiving these kisses. These small miracles became background noise so to speak and I would have liked the author to have written more about it or shine more light upon it. I also noticed that some of the saint's specialties aren't exactly what they should be but I wasn't sure if the author did this on purpose. For example: St. Anne is the patron saint of women and pregnant women in labor. In the book she is the patron saint of Grandmothers. St Anne was the Jesus' grandmother and it would make sense to make her the saint of grandmothers but I just didn't learn it that way. At any rate it could just be that I didn't know this side of St. Anne because St. Anthony, Antonia's tomayo and favorite (also my favorite) was described accurately as the saint of lost things.

Again I can't rave enough about this book because of its innocence. It reminded me of what I want for the children in my life which is simply to enjoy being a kid and not be in a hurry to be an adult or do adult things. It also spoke to me because the love of saints is not normal teenage activity and it is quite ok not to be normal or doing what everyone else is into. Individuality is so beautiful and some of our kids lack it.

Love love love this book and so happy I ended the year with this book!

2.5 stars. Inappropriate focus on improper clothing & behavior, in my opinion. Charming characters, other than that.