Divergent & Insurgent #CBR5
Take the anger and grit of The Outsiders, the intellectual and geographical dystopia of 1984, and a good dose of satire a lá Harrison Bergeron, and you have these two young adult novels by Veronica Roth. Set in Chicago sometime in a future where everyone is a member of one of five factions, the story begins with the main character, Beatrice Prior, facing her aptitude test that will determine which faction best suits her. Beatrice was born into the Abnegation faction but displays an aptitude for both this and two other factions, Erudite and Dauntless, which makes her Divergent. As the woman administering the test advises, this is a very very bad outcome and the catalyst of this trilogy. Beatrice’s story is set in motion on her Choosing Day, when she...
Bright Young Things #CBR5
This series uses the same formula as The Luxe with the author removing a main character and placing the action 30 years into the future. Instead of the Gay Nineties it’s the Roaring 20′s, the summer of 1929 to be exact. Two girls from Ohio, Letty and Cordelia, hop a train on Cordelia’s wedding day and head to New York City. One girl wants to see her name in lights, the other wants to find the father she never knew. A third girl, Astrid, befriends our heroines early on in her role as the girlfriend of Cordelia’s long lost half brother, Charlie. Add a feud between rival bootleggers, a daredevil pilot, and a rich boy who wants to be a writer, and you have the Bright Young Things trilogy. F. Scott Fitzgerald this is not, but if you...
Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick #CBR5
Take the movie Collateral, change Tom Cruise’s character to a deadly Lithuanian chick a la La Femme Nikita and Jamie Foxx’s character to an 18 year old high school kid from Connecticut, and you have Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick. Gobi the Lithuanian exchange student arrives at Perry’s upper middle class suburban home because his parents believe this will be a good experience for their son and daughter. As Gobi’s stay in the US comes to an end, Perry’s Mom and Dad coerce Perry into taking Gobi to the prom, sealing the deal with Dad’s Jaguar. So far, so John Hughes. Then, about a half hour into the prom, Michael Mann takes over the direction, and it’s gun shots, car chases, and explosions. Best vacation book ever. I...
Days of Blood and Starlight #CBR5
I reviewed the first book in this series, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, a few weeks ago, and once again thank @JensAnsbach for recommending this amazing fantasy series. The second book, Days of Blood and Starlight, reminds me of the second installment of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series: the first half is slow but builds a bridge between the first and third books, and the second half gains momentum to end with a cliff hanger that makes the reader impatient for the final book. I have mixed feelings about this move to trilogies in both the young adult and adult arenas. While I don’t believe that authors set out to write trilogies to pad their royalties, I highly suspect that publishers encourage this format to make as much profit from a storyline as...
Envy & Splendor #CBR5
In my previous post, I reviewed the first two books in this series, The Luxe and Rumors. The second two books in the series, Envy and Splendor, follow the same set of characters, Elizabeth, Diana, Penelope, and Caroline through their pursuit of marriage and sex partners, usually not found in the same person. Just like the six seasons of Sex in the City, the characters and relationships become more and more outrageous yet we suspend our disbelief because their bad behavior is such fun to witness! I’ll risk a few spoilers to share the plot of each book. In the third installment, Elizabeth is back, Diana still loves Henry who is now married to Penelope. Teddy and Henry hatch a scheme to go fishing in Florida which turns into a train full of Manhattan...
The Luxe & Rumors #CBR5
Imagine if Candace Bushnell wrote The Age of Innocence or the creators of Gossip Girl went on to film Downton Abbey; if either came true, we’d have The Luxe series of young adult books by Anna Godbersen. Set at the very end of the 19th century, we have a story complete with a Mary known as Elizabeth in these books, perfect, hopelessly in love, and a bit dramatic. Sybil makes a stronger showing as Elizabeth’s younger sister, Diana. Unfortunately, these books lack a middle sister, and if you’ve been following the third season of Downton Abbey, you know that Edith may well the the most interesting sister of the three. That said, The Luxe series (of which I’ve now read the first two) is delicious, trashy, melodramatic fun. The Holland...
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