Not Just a Daughter

So your parents are famous. So you can't go anywhere with your mom or dad without the paparazzi following you. So you struggle to hold onto that "normal life" you want so much... you should be happy, right? If that's what you think, then you clearly aren't a Daughter. Only the Daughters know what life is like as a Daughter, and there is no one better to tell the tale in The Daughters than Joanna Philbin, Regis Philbin's Daughter!


Lizzie's mother is the supermodel Katia Summers. Carina's father is one of the wealthiest men in the world. Hudson's mother Holla is a platinum record selling pop star (think Madonna!). Together, they are Daughters, and the Daughters have rules. First, only another Daughter understands what it is like to be a Daughter. Second, Daughters can only trust other Daughters. Finally, Daughters never talk to the press. It is hard living in the shadow of you parents, but life as a Daughter is more difficult than you could imagine. 


When Lizzie experiences a case of verbal diarrhea to a reporter and calls her mother's new clothing line "slutty", she is all over the papers... the last thing frizzy-haired, plain Lizzie wants. While this garners her a lot of unwanted attention, it also gets her noticed by some of the right people, in particular, a photographer who is labeled as the "ugly model" photographer. What she really likes are real people, people who aren't size 00, but in the fashion world, anyone who is larger than a size 2 and shorter than 6 feet tall is "ugly". At first, Lizzie isn't sure about going to the shoot, but eventually her curiosity wins the best of her.  She goes and something happens. Plain, forgettable Lizzie loves being photographed. She feels free, she feels beautiful, and it is amazing. Her photographs quickly catch the eye of many people and when she is named the newest, hottest young model in the business, Lizzie isn't quite ready for everything that entails. Luckily, she has the other Daughters to help her through.


This was a really fun story about how fame and fortune affect everyone, not just the person who is famous. It makes you think about all those children like the Osbournes, Drew Barrymore, Rumer Willis and other Daughters of famous people. How do they grow up with everything they do scrutinized and in the public spotlight? I can't imagine! Being a teenager is hard enough, but having to battle the paparazzi in the middle of puberty is simply evil!


The Daughters is a series about these daughters, and I am looking forward to the other books in the series. It is great for any middle reader girls inching their way to young adult novels. Any girl who liked Ally Carter's two series' Gallagher Girls and Heist Society would like these stories. I see them as books for the "Gossip Girl" circuit. They are fun and goofy, and really have some strong morals behind the glitz and glam. And for all those real girls and women out there, I can never hear enough "no more size zeroes"!

You Will Fall for the Boy Next Door

Every teenage girl is drawn to the bad boy, right? The boy who plays in the band and is covered in tattoos. The boy with spiky bed head and always looks like he just rolled out of bed. But what about the boy next door? What is a girl to do when caught between the rocker guy and the adorable boy next door? Stephanie Perkins answers that very question in Lola and the Boy Next Door.


Lola Nolan was born to a woman who could never get her act together, but raised by her uncle and his husband. Her two fathers are super strict and definitely don't approve of her 22 year old boyfriend who is in a band. Lola loves to wear crazy, kooky, funky outfits and never looks the same twice 9complete with wigs and false eyelashes). Everything in Lola's life is as fine as it could be until the Bell's return to town. The house next door, to be exact. Calliope Bell is Lola's former friend turned figure skating champion and her twin brother Cricket was Lola's first love and first heartbreak.


At first, Lola thinks she is impervious to all that makes Cricket Bell, but pretty soon, she can't stop thinking about him. She looks for him outside her window every night and thinks about him when he is at Berkeley for classes. When Cricket announces his feelings for her right in front of her boyfriend, Max, Lola still can't admit her feelings for Cricket. When Lola's mom returns in all her messed up, sickly thin, drug abusing glory, Lola just can't take it anymore. What she does not only makes her look deeply at her relationship with Max, but also the entire life she chooses to live from crazy beehive wigs down to the Marie Antoinette prom dress. 


Another fun story from Perkins that is just as good as the best Sarah Dessen book. She knows how to create spunky heroines and boys you can't wait to see them with. I loved Lola's kooky outfits and love for fashion, and there was an interesting part where she was called out as being fake and hiding behind her costumes. It was a real eye-opener for her and questioned everything she loved and lived for. I also really loved that Lola had two dads. Lola was part of a happy, healthy family that wasn't glorified or overdone. It was just a normal, happy family. It is nice to see same-sex parenting in young adult novels and treated as it should be- like any other normal, happy family. 


This is a good young adult novel for your typical young adult ages. It is perfect for those girls who love a good romantic comedy and just want a happy ending. If anyone read Anna and the French Kiss, they will be happy to find Anna and Entienne in this story as supporting characters. it is nice to see some friendly faces in the new book, but this is definitely a companion book, not a sequel. Anyone could read this book without having read the first one and understand everything just fine. But don't forgo Anna for very long if you haven't read her yet. Both Anna and Lola are perfect for that warm, fuzzy read we all need in our lives!

NYC in the 1980's!

It's tough to be young in the city... the city. But for Carrie Bradshaw there is a pull from New York City calling to her like nothing else ever has. She wants to be a writer and has one chance, a mere two months, to convince everyone she should stay in the city rather than go to Brown in the fall. In Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel, by Candace Bushnell, we finally get to see how Carrie's first summer in the big city makes her a New Yorker permanently.

Carrie is torn between the other kids in her writing class and the tantalizing life of one Ms. Samantha Jones. The kids in her class are a mix of New York savvy college kids who know their way around the restaurants and clubs and kids from out of town who still can't use the subway, but they are all her age, experiencing the same things she is. Samantha takes Carrie in when her landlady kicks her out and she has no where to go. She also takes Carrie out to her usual haunts, introducing her to New York's most important up and comers. When Carrie returns to her friends from class telling them how she is dating Bernard Singer, the most coveted new playwright on Broadway, and hung out with a bevy of models, fashion designers, writers, and artists, the others are clearly impressed.

But Carrie can't get herself to really write. When she finds out Bernard is recently divorced, she is inspired to write a play about a husband and wife. As she continues working on her play, she comes to some conclusions about herself and the others around her. First, some people just aren't cut out to survive NYC. Also, some people may seem like talented artists when they are really silly fools who are just as miserable as everyone else (just with better tables in restaurants). And finally, Carrie Bradshaw has changed. Everything she does and thinks now is clearly through New York City tinted glasses. When she returns home or a friend comes to visit her, they clearly know she has changed. Now all she has to do is realize it. But will she, before she has to go to Brown? I bet you already know the answer!

This sequel was much better than the first book for me because I got a chance to see Carrie in NYC, but it still wasn't a phenomenal book. it was entertaining and interesting, but only because I loved the show on HBO. I think if I gave these books to a kids who had never seen the show, they might quickly grow bored with the story. But knowing who Samantha and Miranda become made this much more interesting for me. This series might just be a YA series meant for fans and only fans.

There is quite a lot of sex in the story, but none of it is overly graphic or specific. Instead, it is mostly everyone talking about sex and virginity as opposed to Bushnell "showing" it. Still I probably wouldn't give this to a younger high school student, more for the slowness of the story than the sexual content. I am not sure if this is it for the Carrie Diaries, but if there is more, I will most likely read it. I won't drop everything to read it, but I will get to it eventually.

A Former Life Reveals...

Now that a Silver Blood has been released in the safe Repository, the Conclave can't ignore the fact that the abominations that feed off the Blue Blood vampires are back and they are hunting. Bliss was almost killed and a member of the Conclave was killed. Now they must get to the bottom of the threat, even if it involves trusting Blue Bloods they aren't sure they can trust.

Nothing is as it seems in New York for the young Blue Bloods. Bliss is thrown for a loop when her missing boyfriend, presumed dead by Silver Blood, returns. But something is wrong with Dylan. Bliss and her friends suspect he has been corrupted, but they can't bring themselves to report him to the Conclave for fear of what could happen to him.

Schuyler has problems of her own. By taking her best friend and Conduit, Oliver, as her familiar, she has blurred the lines between friend and lover/light snack. When she starts seeing Jack Force for discreet (or so they think) make-out sessions, she feels torn between the two boys she loves, but in two very different ways. Add to that the fact that Jack is bound to Mimi Force and the breaking of a bond is exactly what put Schuyler's mother into a decades long coma, and you have quite a pickle on your hands.

But trouble with the Conclave makes the teenage drama pale in comparison. Schuyler's grandfather has gone to South America to investigate a possible Silver Blood uprising. When he doesn't return or get in contact with anyone, the entire Conclave, including Bliss, Schuyler, Mimi, Jack, and Oliver travel down to investigate. What they find in the city where Lucifer's second-in-command is imprisoned is a betrayal that goes to the very core of the mighty 400 Blue Bloods. Someone within the 400 has betrayed the group, but will they learn of the betrayal in time?

This was another great installment of a great series. Sometimes I feel like they end on too much of a cliff-hanger, but with the other books stacked on my nightstand, I can survive! If I had to wait a year for the next book, however, I might be a little more irritated. This book certainly upped the ante in terms of vampire politics and crazy plots and plans. The teen drama, high fashion, and crazy New York nights are still there, but the series has taken a deep dive into the dark and scary world of Fallen angels and creeper demons.

Can a Mask Hide a Vampire?

When we last left the Blue Bloods in Melissa De la Cruz's first book, the Blue Blood teens had determined that Silver Bloods (vampires who feed on other vampires for super power) were behind the recent rash of deaths. Unfortunately, they couldn't get anyone to listen to them. When Schuyler Van Allen's grandmother is attacked by a Silver Blood and almost destroyed completely (if you save enough blood the soul can reincarnate), she tells Schuyler to go to Venice and find her exiled grandfather. He was the only one who could help them.

Masquerade starts with Schuyler, new Blue Blood/ half blood, in Venice with her best friend and human Conduit, Oliver, (vampires use Conduits to help them in the human world) trying to find Lawrence Van Allen, Schuyler's grandfather. Just when they think they have failed, they locate him and warn him of the Silver Blood threat. Lawrence tells them he won't come back to New York, so Schuyler and Oliver return disappointed.

When they get back, though, they find the other Blue Bloods getting ready for the big 400 Ball- where all 400 Blue Bloods gather each year to induct the newest members. With preparations in full swing, Schuyler is still trying to get to the bottom of the Silver Bloods when her grandfather returns. He plans to help both his family and the rest of the Blue Bloods stay safe against these abominations. Unfortunately, something keeps happening to Schuyler's friend Bliss- she starts to black out and wake up in strange places, and her dreams have become monster filled nightmares. Even Schuyler can't seem to take to the vampire transition as she starts to get weak and pass out often. When her grandfather tells her to take a human familiar (someone the Blue Bloods feed off of, but never kill), she decides to use Oliver, further complicating their relationship.

When the 400 Ball kicks off, Schuyler shows up in her mother's gown, setting the guests at the party into an tizzy as she blows away even the most high-powered Mimi Force. When Mimi and her twin brother Jack are recognized as bonded angels, the Angel of Death and the Angel of Destruction, Schuyler learns they are a reincarnated pair that comes together every cycle out of love and devotion (although being born as siblings in this cycle complicates things in the human world). Now Schuyler's crush on Jack seems futile, but Jack hasn't stopped noticing Schuyler, much to Mimi's horror. When Mimi decides to protect her eternal love and bond, she decides to unleash an evil that will rock the Blue Bloods like nothing ever has before.

I read the first book of this series many months ago, and I got distracted by other books before reading the rest of the series. When I got an advanced copy of De la Cruz's new book (adult fiction) I started to read it and realized there are connections to the Blue Blood's series. So I decided to delve back into the series so I didn't miss anything in the new book. I always worry about waiting too long for a sequel, because with as many books as I read, I tend to forget much of the book. Sometimes an author does a good job of briefly catching you up on the story, but sometimes they write a sequel as if no time has passed since the end of the last book. De la Cruz was part of the former- choosing not to leave her readers grasping to remember what had already happened. It was done briefly and well detailed so someone reading the series straight through wouldn't feel it was too repetitive. I definitely appreciated her efforts with this.

The book itself was fun and exciting. The series is a bit younger than some other YA out there, and would be good for most middle school through high school students. The language and subject matter are fairly tame. The only weird thing I had trouble digesting was that Mimi and jack, who are born as brother and sister in this cycle, will be bonded and essentially made husband and wife. It is explained well in the book, and I understood it, but the pair seems unnecessarily complicated. The bonded pair could have easily been two unrelated people. I guess I am just having trouble getting over the ick factor with this relationship! Maybe more will come out in the later novels in the series. All in all, this was a great follow-up and I am already knees deep in book #3!