Review: Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram

Being Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #1)
by Kelly Oram
Published: June 14, 2010



An accident that should end in tragedy instead gives seventeen-year-old Jamie Baker a slew of uncontrollable superhuman abilities. To keep her secret safe Jamie socially exiles herself, earning the title of Rocklin High's resident ice queen. But during a supercharged encounter with star quarterback Ryan Miller she literally kisses anonymity goodbye. Now the annoyingly irresistible Ryan will stop at nothing to melt the heart of the ice queen and find out what makes her so special. Unfortunately, Ryan is not the only person on to her secret. Will Jamie learn to contain her unstable powers before being discovered by the media or turned into a government lab rat? More importantly, can she throw Ryan Miller off her trail before falling in love with him?

"Most superhero stories start with a meteor shower or a nasty insect bite, but mine actually starts with a kiss. Whether it was a kiss of life or a kiss of death I still haven’t decided, but it was, surprisingly, a really good kiss. Not that I’d ever tell him that."

Uh huh. That pretty much sums up my reaction when I realized I would enjoy this book. See, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you read that synopsis? Loner main character? Check. Popular quarterback as the love interest? Check. A guarded secret and forbidden romance (oooh..)? Double check. Typical high school romance, right? Only this time it comes with SUPAH-POWERS! Which made the concept cooler, in my opinion. But the thing is, I've always loved to be surprised by books I initially thought to be "same-ol'-same-ol'" and boy did I love this kind of surprise [refer to gif above].

So the story, as Jamie had clarified in the book, did not start because of what happened to her to have acquired her powers. It's part of it but all these fun mess started on a dare involving the ice queen, the star quarterback and a kiss.

Jamie Baker is a character to behold (Ryan Miller as well but we'll get to his part sooner or later, let's talk about our heroine first). Considered as the Ice Queen of Rocklin' High and also the hottest girl in the entire school - the Ice Queen status kind of diminishes that fact, though. So by now you all are probably thinking that my first notions about this book were right; we have a few hundred pages left into the story, don't cha worry. According to Ryan Miller:

"Jamie is always put together. Her hair and makeup are always perfect. Her clothes are always stylish. She’s gorgeous."

She's also hilarious. Her powers made her shy away from interacting with people and for good reason - she can't control it. But it did not make her turn into something she's not. You know, pretentious? Wear hideous clothes to school, goes to all extreme to turn people away (which most of the time is over the top)... she's just cool and moves her own way without association to anyone. She's doing a very good job of going - well, not unnoticed obviously because that's kind of hard - but unapproachable. Until..

Ryan Miller - I love this guy! Seriously. It doesn't take much to do so. The moment you learn about the kind of person he is, you'll fall. He's a really, really nice and sweet guy. Always full of smiles and positive outlooks in life - I know, who'd expect that? I mean, a lot of jocks in books are described as cocky, full of attitude and 99.9% of the time jerks. But Ryan Miller is pure goodness inside and out. I wouldn't blame Jamie for having a hard time saying 'no' to him. It was a lot of work on Ryan's part to put himself in Jamie's graces but he still did! And that's saying something.

This book is so funny but it will also touch your heart when you least expect it. I can't help but feel sympathetic towards Jamie's situation or swoon to Ryan's adorable-ness or be excited about Jamie's super-awesome-powers. At some point I was really afraid that some sort of jealous factor would eventually creep in. Actually, there was but not the kind you think. See, Ryan's childhood bestfriend is the most popular girl in school and the kind of friendship they have is something to be jealous about. Jamie longs for that kind of friendship. Since everything that happened to her in the past, she wasn't able to really connect with anyone her age. She's thankful for her wonderful parents who she can be herself around but it's different. I feel so bad for her.

All in all, I love Being Jamie Baker. It's a good combination of romance and supernatural. A lot of romance but not too much to test the readers - balanced perfectly with the supernatural part of the story. By the end of the book though, it's the romance that would make you long for the sequel :)

"You know how if you forget to stretch before a workout and then you go to sleep, you wake up stiff as a board? Well, apparently, getting squashed by a ton of steel has the same effect, and I guess with supermuscles comes superstiffness. What I needed were some superpainkillers."

Look! Even the trailer is adorb. Just watch: