strong protagonist – Page 22 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Review: Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols

January 26, 2015June 3, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Superlatives #1

Tia and Will’s lives get flipped upside down when they’re voted Yearbook’s Biggest Flirts in this sassy novel from the author of Endless Summer and The One That I Want.

Tia just wants to have fun. She’s worked hard to earn her reputation as the life of the party, and she’s ready for a carefree senior year of hanging out with friends and hooking up with cute boys. And her first order of business? New guy Will. She can’t get enough of his Midwestern accent and laidback swagger.

As the sparks start to fly, Will wants to get serious. Tia’s seen how caring too much has left her sisters heartbroken, and she isn’t interested in commitment. But pushing Will away drives him into the arms of another girl. Tia tells herself it’s no big deal…until the yearbook elections are announced. Getting voted Biggest Flirts with Will is, well, awkward. They may just be friends, but their chemistry is beginning to jeopardize Will’s new relationship—and causing Tia to reconsider her true feelings. What started as a lighthearted fling is about to get very complicated…

2.5 Drink Me Potions

Biggest Flirts had such a huge potential for me to love it. I love stories where the least likeliest people find out that they can be more than what their surface selves are like, and see that they’re meant for each other.

Tia had just met Will, the New Guy. Now, Tia is a rather strong protagonist. She is very open with boys and looks forward to hook ups rather than relationships. She absolutely gets terrified of any position of authority and tries her best to weasel out of them. She’s smart, but only lets it come out when she’s upset and wants to “put things in order”. Like on a multiple choice test. Or cleaning out her house. It’s a different look for a main character that isn’t seen so often, plus she actually has a vivid personality that isn’t necessarily reminiscent of someone else. I didn’t have a problem with that.

Now, what I did have a problem with was the way she would string Will along. She knew he wasn’t the type of guy that only wanted meaningless hook ups. He wanted a relationship, one with her in fact, and he would do anything to chase her for a date.

Their cute flirting in the first week of school made sense, since Tia had secret feelings for him too. But NO! It didn’t matter that she herself knew she felt something…more for Will. No boyfriend. Period.

And to make things worse, when she saw him with another girl, she wasn’t making it easy on him to find someone else. Yes, Will was also at fault for still carrying feelings for her, but she turned him down. Repeatedly. A guy can only handle so much rejection, right? Apparently not Will.

So for most of the story, I’m waiting for her to admit that he’s the exception she should make in her no-boyfriend rule. It was torturous though! It was obvious that Will loved her, but love is a scary concept for Tia Cruz.

Just when it was getting good (finally!), the story just ends. ENDS. I’m so upset at that! I feel like I didn’t have enough of the two of them, together. The flirting between them was the only highlight for me in this story. I sat in suspense for 300+ pages to find that the story stopped way too soon.

All I can say is, I hope the next book, Perfect Couple will be less torturous for me. This was a disappointment, and I literally skimmed the last bits of the book to see if my eyes were REALLY deceiving me at the way it ended.

Overall Recommendations:
What could’ve been a really good romantic story of a girl who won’t let anyone close to her heart, and a sweet new guy who had such good chemistry with her, it turned out to be a major disappointment.

Tia was a flawed and realistic girl, wonderfully made, but she literally led Will on for the longest time. Although she said no with her mouth, her body language clearly showed she wanted to say yes. Ughh, it was torturous to wait out for her decision about him, but the ending wasn’t worth that wait. It cut off the story too soon, just as it was finally getting exciting.

Biggest Flirts may just be my most disappointing read so far. Don’t carry too many expectations at the beginning and it may be somewhat decent.

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

January 8, 2015June 3, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Anna and the French Kiss #2

Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better.

And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket, a gifted inventor, steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

3 Drink Me Potions

I came in really wanting to love-love-love it like I did with Anna and the French Kiss, but I just…couldn’t. I’m not saying I didn’t like it, it just wasn’t as great.

Lola is a VERY unique protagonist. She never wears the same thing twice, always having on a different costume each day. They’re wracked with bright colours, wigs of all shapes and sizes, and combined in such interesting ways. She’s not afraid to be who she is. And for Cricket, her love interest, he sounded very sweet and cute. He’s that kind of nice guy who would do anything for the girl he loves. But Stephanie Perkins didn’t leave him that boring sounding. He’s extremely tall, at 6’4″, and invents little automatons for fun. Oh, and he has a great sense of style. Not your typical boy with T-shirt and shorts/jeans. No, siree. His wardrobe includes wearing (tight) pinstripe pants.

Anyway, with these 2 very interesting characters, why couldn’t I love it? The pacing just wasn’t right for me. I hated Lola’s relationship with her rocker boyfriend, Max. He was a total tool. Yeah, he never cheated on her or anything, and he seemingly cared, but he was so jealous and possessive. We all knew he was totally wrong for her, but no! The story had to drag on with him in it. I couldn’t wait until the page they broke up. Honestly. Second best page ever.

I guess I wished there was more to their romance. Cricket and Lola’s, I mean. I just didn’t feel the chemistry between them as strongly as I did with Etienne and Anna. For most of the book, Lola was practically dragging her feet into admitting that she still had feelings for Cricket. Like, come on! Stop going back to Max and get your head together! I really wanted to scream that at her sometimes. It was frustrating, to say the least.

The ending was nicely wrapped up, of course. I felt that I had just finally gotten to the good stuff…and then it had to end. Sigh. At least Anna and Etienne were amazing secondary characters here. It did feel a little weird seeing them from a 3rd person perspective, though. All in all, it wasn’t a bad read. The chemistry was just lacking, and I wanted to slap Lola awake occasionally. But it was still romantic! (for the last twenty pages or so)

Overall Recommendations:
Lola and the Boy Next Door seemed to lack the essential parts of its predecessor, Anna and the French Kiss that made it so successful. Both protagonists were defined and unique in character, but the book felt like it was dragging its feet through the mud, waiting it out for Lola to figure out who was the right person for her. It sounds a lot like the underlying plot for the first book, but it was executed way better there.
This isn’t to say it sucked as the romance still had that Perkins touch, but I guess it could’ve been better. Having an amazing predecessor to live up to sets a high standard.

Review: Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer

January 1, 2015June 3, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Trust Me #1

Fans of Ally Carter, especially her Heist Society readers, will love this teen mystery/thriller with sarcastic wit, a hint of romance, and Ocean’s Eleven–inspired action.

Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old-school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad—she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A+ (okay, A-) average.

But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head . . . but that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.

3 Drink Me Potions

I had been anxiously waiting a long time to get my hands on this book. The synopsis made it sound really suspenseful and good. But what I ended up reading was something on borderline mediocre.

Trust Me, I’m Lying started off strong. There was a conspiracy/mystery afoot! Somebody’s kidnapped Julep’s dad! *gasp* (By the way, Julep is an amazing false-name to give a child). There were interestingly strange clues left behind for her to solve and, fingers crossed, hopefully help her find her father. I absolutely love a good quest for cryptic clues. Amongst plot twists here and there, the ending didn’t satisfy as much, what with the build up in the beginning.

The plot twists had a few unexpected moments, and some that were WAY too obvious. For someone who doesn’t let people in very easily, Julep trusted others….well, rather easily. That’s all I’m going to say for that, and hopefully you’d understand why some things were seen a mile away.

As for romance and the “love triangle”….what love triangle?? There was obviously one guy she fell for, and another guy who was pining for her that she never let herself see that (no duh, since she doesn’t have many friends). Plus, I couldn’t see any chemistry building between Julep and either boys. Yes, attraction was definitely warranted for one of the potential suitors, but it wasn’t done well!!. Urgh, and that frustrates me. Just because he has a PRETTY FACE doesn’t mean there’s anything beyond mutual attraction. Which brings me to wonder, why did this hot guy fall for HER? Summer NEVER really mentioned why he cared about her in the end.

Oh. Hold on. You think I was annoyed in my above comments? Let’s see…how about we talk of that ENDING? With many mixed emotions currently running through my head, I’m thinking of settling on angry, WTF, confused, sad, and semi-satisfied. Too many? OK. Let’s sum it up to BITTERSWEET . I’m not sure what the sequel, Trust Me, I’m Trouble, will be about yet but since I wasn’t TOO too attached to anyone, I guess I shall give it a shot.

Although there wasn’t too much love coming from me, Trust Me, I’m Lying still earned a 3 star rating. It had its moments that surprised/jolted me awake. Julep was the only character that felt any bit real to me. Mary Elizabeth Summer put a lot of effort researching into “grifting” and how to con others. Yes, some tips were quite interesting (ie. innocent people always look a little bit guilty). But she lacked very heavily in the character building category.

With that said, I shall end off this rant–*cough* review with possibly the most-touching line in the whole book that actually made me feel something.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll watch the world while you sleep.”

Overall Recommendations:
Trust Me, I’m Lying has definitely done its research into conning others and learning how to wear different layers depending on the mark you’re dealing with. However, where its plot twists were somewhat mystifying and its scavenger hunt for clues were intriguing, it lacked HEAVILY in characterization (beyond building Julep’s character) and the chemistry between the protagonist and her 2 male suitors (erm, friends).
Oh, and its ending may be somewhat astonishing to those who were actually drawn into Julep’s story and life. Whatever feelings you may have, bittersweet would be my conclusion.