Author : Chelsey Philpot
Genre : YA Contemporary
Release Date : October 14th, 2014
Publisher : HarperCollins
When Julia Buchanan enrolls at St. Anne’s at the beginning of junior year, Charlotte Ryder already knows all about the former senator’s daughter. Most people do... or think they do.
Charlotte certainly never expects she’ll be Julia’s friend. But almost immediately, she is drawn into the larger than-life-new girl’s world—a world of midnight rendezvous, dazzling parties, palatial vacation homes, and fizzy champagne cocktails. And then Charlotte meets, and begins falling for, Julia’s handsome older brother, Sebastian.
But behind her self-assured smiles and toasts to the future, Charlotte soon realizes that Julia is still suffering from a tragedy. A tragedy that the Buchanan family has kept hidden... until now.
Actually, I didn't have much expectations to this book since I rarely read contemporary books about friendship between 2 girls. The story itself was actually beautiful, but some of the characters' personality and the beginning really ruin it. The beginning is really bore me to the point I almost DNF it.
The story is basically about insta-friendship. The main characters, Charlie and Julia, met when Charlie helped Julia when Julia's drunk. And just like that, they became the best of best friend immediately, like really? Both Charlie and Julia is a junior-almost-senior, surely they already have best friend before. But they both ditch their best friend to hang out with each other. I couldn't blame Charlie and Julia to suddenly became a best friend, but at least don't forget your own best friend. Though in the end things became good again, I still don't like it.
Usually, my least favorite characters would be the villain or something like that, but rarely the main character. But in this book, my least favorite character is Charlie. I don't know about you who had read this book before, but I feel that Charlie is too 'weak'. Sometimes, she treated Julia like she's her queen (like when Charlie give her winter boots to Julia and wear sneakers instead). I know its a minor detail, but still its bothered me. Best friend is supposed to 'through-hell-with-each-other'.
I didn't hate everything in Charlie, though. I admire her art and kindness and acceptance toward Julia, despite the tragedy that involved her. While Charlie is quiet and usually do what other suggested her to do, Julia is loud, love to doing prank and other reckless thing. She rarely listened to other people's suggestion. As you can see, Julia is the exact opposite of Charlie.
The other characters aka The Buchanans are the kind of family you'd love to encounter with. Even though they're oozing rich, they're nice and loving. They treated Charlie like their own family. Beside nice, they're also funny, especially the kids--Bradley, Sebastian, and Cordelia. They all have one similarity--love to prank. Their pranks are really funny.
Despite the beginning, I do love the ending. The ending is really unpredictable and uncliche, I didn't see that coming! And the last 2 chapters have so much feels! Though there are some things I hope it didn't end like that, the ending is still way much better than the beginning. If you love something 'slightly depressing', I have no doubt you'll enjoy this book.
It's a shame that this one didn't really leave an impact for you. I thought it was a pretty good read for most of the part and yes, the writing was absolutely gorgeous! It was the best thing about this book, I'd say.
ReplyDeleteLovely review, Tiffany <33
You're right, the writing is really good! Thats the thing--beside the ending--that I actually love. Wish I could enjoy the other part too!
DeleteThanks Mel :)