Book Review: "Real Live Boyfriends (Yes, Boyfriends, Plural. If My Life Weren't Complicated--I Wouldn't Be Ruby Oliver)"

The fourth (and what I assume to be, final) book of the Ruby Oliver series, and I now retract my earlier statement -- this is my favorite book in the series. All is not well in paradise for Ruby with Noel, or so she thinks. He goes away during the summer to NYC to visit his brother, Claude, and comes back acting distant and weird towards Ruby. Naturally, her anxiety leads her to think the worst. The reality: far worse than she could have ever imagined.

There's much drama filling the covers of this book, and well-written drama at that. I really enjoyed it though, and I sailed through the entire book in two and a half days -- I just couldn't put it down, I had to know where all the twists and turns were leading to! I highly recommend this book if you've been reading the series, and am rating it a high 5 stars :)

Book Review: "Confessions of a Teen Nanny #2: Rich Girls"

The second book in the Confessions of a Teen Nanny trilogy, I found this book to be very difficult to put down, as I kept getting so sucked into the drama of the storyline, I just HAD to know what would happen next. (I blazed through this book pretty quickly as a result. ;)) Without giving too much away, all I can say is this book is just dripping with revenge. And drama. And unexpected twists and turns. FABULOUS. Giving this one a big five star rating, and anticipating digging into the third book!

Book Review: "Pure"

I'm going to go out on a limb here and be 100% honest... I only picked up this book because the concept seemed like it would be somewhat of a trainwreck. In my experience, it always seems like any story that places way too much emphasis on virginity -- for or against -- tends to come off all sorts of wrong, unrealistic, and oftentimes... unintentionally hilarious. Even the cover of this book made it feel like this wasn't even going to take itself seriously. But actually? I was wrong.

Well, it still placed an unrealistic basis on the topic of virginity -- how many people would become religious zealots because one of their friends broke their purity ring promise and end up trying to shove their beliefs on an entire school? -- but the story itself, for the most part, is pretty good. There's a lot of emphasis on how one person's actions tend to have a ripple effect far beyond just that of themselves and their immediate life.While the details may be a bit overdramatized, the general message is not if you look past the specific details they're pushing. And I think it's actually handled pretty well in that respect. Giving this one a 4 star rating!

Book Review: "Knit The Season (A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel #3)"

Knit the Season is the final installment of the Friday Night Knitting Club trilogy by Kate Jacbons...and what a fine end to a series if ever I saw one. She gives our beloved characters a lovely send off.

As with many series finales, this book was writen to tie up loose ends. And that it does. Dakota is trying to find her footing in life as everything else around her seems to be changing in one way or another. As she's adjusting to all these shifts, she's still mourning the loss of her mother. As she prepares for this year's holiday season, it seems everybody has a story to share with her about her mother, all stories she'd never heard before, and all of which shed new light on what kind of person Georgia was. The little girl who thought she knew her mother better than anybody quickly finds out that there was quite about about the type of person her mother was that she didn't know about at all.

Given the twist endings of the first two books, I was on pins and needles (literally needles...I was knitting while reading the majority of this book) in tripidation of something bad happening at the end of this book. Especially with Gran slowing down, I kept fearing she might be the next Walker to go or something. I was relieved to not only find out she wasn't, but that there's no tragic twist ending on this book. Rather, the opposite.

Personally I love these books and wish this weren't the end of them, but who knows....maybe she'll write more of them someday! 5 out of 5 rating!

Book Review: "Knit Two (A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel, #2)"

The sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club, Knit Two by Kate Jacobs brings back almost all of the old characters (minus Georgia, of course) from the first book so that we can see were everybody ended up 5 years later (and beyond, when you reach the end of this one). Unlike the first novel, which centered around Georgia, this book is a bit more equal opportunity to the rest of the characters and gives all of them more time to develop each of their storylines and personalities more in full. For this, I actually prefer this sequel to the original, but the sense of loss is palpable throughout the entire thing, and you can't help but feel like you, yourself, have lost a friend as well while reading it. While most of the other reviews I've seen of this book rave about how they like how Catherine got more of a storyline in this one, I guess I'm rooting for the underdog here. I love the fact that Anita, the lovable old woman, got so much page-time as it were to detail her engagement, upcoming nuptials, and the search for her long-lost sister. Of course, I also love everything about the Rome trip. ;) And it's kind of cool getting to see Darwin in so much more of a domestic role now. A lot can change in 5 years, and this book definitely goes into it. The story has a bit of a twist ending that yanked at my heartstrings, similar to how the first book did that at the end too, but I think it tied up some loose ends, as odd as it may be to say so over that particular ending.

I flew through this book quite a bit faster than the last one, and I'm rating it a bit higher; this one gets a 4 out of 5 star review.

Book Review: "The Karma Club"

Just about everybody has at least some grasp on the concept of how karma works: that whatever you do and put out into the universe, good or bad, will come back on you tenfold. Thus is the basis of The Karma Club by Jessica Brody. After a group of three friends have all been scorned by their significant others, they form a club in which to exact revenge on the perpetrators, all in the name of karma. The idea is that they're helping to lighten karma's load by speeding up the karmic process a little and exacting punishments themselves. What they fail to recognize is that for the negative energies they put into the revenge tactics, they're only bringing bad karma unto themselves.

This book is loaded with typical high school drama, but there's enough humor in it to make up for that fact and then some. (Their revenge tactics are pretty damn creative...) I found it quite enjoyable, and rate it a full 5 out of 5 stars. :)

Book Review: "The Virginity Club"

The title alone of this book is probably more than enough to stir up controversy. Oh yes, The Virginity Club is one of those books; that no matter which side of the line you stand on, there's probably something between these covers that will end up getting your panties in a bunch. And I'm not immune.

This is by no means a new pet peeve of mine, but personally, it bothers me whenever a book, a film, or anything else decides to force the notion that virginity is something to be ashamed of and should be shaken off as quickly as possible. Let me make it clear: there is NOTHING wrong with virginity, and I don't care what age you are - if you happen to be one, even if you feel like you must be the only one left at your age, trust me. There's PLENTY of others out there who're just as old as you, and older. Whew, okay, got that out of the way. Now, onward.

This book has an almost schizophrenic sort of flip-flopping on the issue. All the girls in this book are vying for the same scholarship; one in which the biggest caveat is that you must be "pure of body and spirit". Not once in this entire book does it end up saying just how that rule is to be enforced. The term is very much open for debate as far as its true meaning goes. Regardless, prior to this scholarship, it seems that most of the girls wanted to lose their virginity ASAP. Then when this came around, oh, of course. It's a different tune now that money's involved. And you have characters from both sides here, ones ridiculing virgins, and ones martyrizing them. Not much for in between the two extremes, either. But that's not all... they also go the opposite extreme and do a TON of slut-shaming. (Yes, that's a real term.) Which makes one think then that the author must, on some level, be more on the side of thinking that virginity is virtuous and should be kept at all costs, but....there's so much in here that contradicts that. Basically, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't according to this book. Well what, exactly, is this book trying to convey as a message then? I don't know, and because of that, it seems to have missed its mark majorly. At best, I feel I can only bear to give this book a 3 star rating, and even that feels like it's being generous.

Book Review: "Star Power (Talent #3)"

In this final installment of Zoey Dean's Talent series, the girls are truly finding themselves on the up and up. Mac has taken it upon herself to become everybody's agent. (It used to just be Emily's.) She starts out meaning well, but soon becomes heady with power and starts letting it get to her. Emily is still in full swing of her Davey Woodward crush, and it's only coming out more and more in spades since working with him on set in a romantic role. Becks has been signed on as the fourth Dixie Girl, which are a world-renowned surf team. And Coco is trying to make a name for herself as a singer, and not as just Cardammon's daughter. But since Mac keeps putting her managerial duties first and friendship second, and as is to be expected, ends up making a huge mess out of things. As with most things, things find a way of working out in the end, and ends up on a cute note.

I'll be sad to see the girls go, but at the same time, one can really only put up with so much middle school drama. After all, isn't living it firsthand once enough? But I did enjoy the story, and I'm rating this one a 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "Almost Famous (Talent #2)"

This second installment of Zoey Dean's Talent series is thankfully a huge step up from its predecessor. Whereas the first book in the series was bland and boring, this one is filled with juicy drama all the way through, and really fleshes out what each character is all about. It's all in the tone of middle school drama gone VERY awry, and eventual revenge. However, morality is to be upheld, and the underlying message is that revenge doesn't pay, no matter how badly you've been burned. (It would've been too predictable if everything had ended up working out according to plan with the revenge plots.) I think there's a lot of themes throughout this book though that most people can relate to on some level, as most people have been harassed in school at some point in their lives; maybe not to the degree these girls are, but it still gets its point across. Regardless, I'm voting this one a big 5 stars :)

Book Review: "Talent"

Outside of her The A-List series, Zoey Dean has another offering for us with a miniseries meant for a slightly younger demographic, starting with this book, Talent.

The premise is basically this: Emily, a typical all-American girl from Iowa, comes to LA to visit the city with her mother and her best friend for a week. Just as Hollywood-obsessed as most girls their age, they soak up every little detail about the business that they can... but especially when it comes to their movie star obsession, Davey Woodward. There's the typical levels of teenage star obsession...and then there's these girls. Who, after hearing that Davey has a movie premiere party just 10 blocks away from where their hotel is they're staying at, sneak out after Emily's mom falls asleep that night. Paige gets turned away from the door immediately, whereas Emily succeeds in lying her way into the party. She's quickly discovered by the one girl who caught her little 'performance', whose mother just happens to represent Davey - along with 90% of the rest of young Hollywood. Feeling that she's stumbled upon something special here, she decides to try and make Emily a star. However, as her mother's not willing to even hear her out for her efforts, she's left to do this almost entirely on her own...and it inevitably proves to be much harder than she ever could have anticipated.

I get the feeling that this book was aimed for a middle school demographic, and is written as such. It's not bad - it's actually a very cute read, not to mention a quick one at that (despite being almost 300 pages). It's just interesting enough to have picqued my interest into wanting to check out the next book in the series. :) Rating this one 4 out of 5 stars.