Book Blurb:
Petty Little Lives
by Alice Reeds
Release Date: 08/18/15
Limitless Publishing
The only thing cousins Sapphire Hope and Roxanna Revolution have in common is they don’t want to spend the summer at their aunt’s Iowa farm.
Sapphire is an entitled L.A. rich-girl…
Spoiled by her Oscar-winning mother and a CEO father, Sapphire thrives on the lifestyle of a jet-setting socialite and aspiring model. She has no interest in rural life, or the strange cousin who seems to want to be her friend. About the only thing even remotely interesting about the farm is the good-looking intern at her aunt’s veterinary clinic, Dawn Matthews. He might do as a summer distraction.
Roxanna is a sensitive loner…
She spends her time playing guitar and posting videos for her YouTube subscribers, but at least at her aunt’s, nobody knows what she’s hiding. Since her secret drove her boyfriend away, she could use a few friends, but Sapphire clearly isn't interested—and even less so when Dawn prefers Roxanna's company over hers.
When Roxanna's secret comes out, Sapphire, Roxanna, and their friends are forced to view their lives from a new perspective and face choices they never thought they’d have to make.
Can friendship and new love help them overcome physical and emotional challenges and learn what’s really important? Or will old habits and attitudes refuse to die?
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My Review:
3 Out Of 5 Hearts
Genre: Teen--
Roxanna and her cousin Sapphire are being forced to spend the summer working at their unknown aunt’s house/farm. The girls have never met, but their mothers are sisters and want the two of them to become friends and feel like forcing them together will cause it. The girls could not be more different and must grow as people to make a go of getting to know each other.
I thought I was going to get a drama filled, angst inducing teen read, maybe bordering on New Adult with some sexual situations thrown in. I mean come on, look the cover and the synopsis with a potential love triangle. But that was not this book. Instead, I received a sweet story about 2 girls overcoming family and personal problems to create an unbreakable bond.
The two things that bothered me about this book was the character's names (yes I can be ridiculously picky, I am aware) and the simplistic writing used.
Ok, let's start with the names. Everyone in the story had some outrageous/unique/unused name, and I mean everybody. Sapphire, Roxanna, Valesca, Dawn, Dusk, Hope, Revolution…just to name a few. It would have been fine if just one character or maybe one here or there had a unique name, but nope. (I am sorry if I offended anyone who has one of these names, I don’t have a problem with them, I just felt like I was overwhelmed by originality in character names by the author.)
My other issue was that sometimes the thought from the “girls” (and the random paragraph told from Jose or Dawn’s view) were so simplistic that it felt like it would come from a pre-teen instead of a mature 18 year old woman. And then other times, they would have a moment of adultness like Sapphire flirting with a random man to get her way. The narration of the book was not consistent within the character view and it made me disconnect a times.
I liked the idea of the plot, with these two very different girls meeting for the first time and the angsty drama that unfolds. Add in a dash of an undisclosed potential medical complication, and I am sold. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the book was not executed as well as I would have liked. The big issues were solved so easily with no real conflict. Sapphire is a terrible human being and treats everyone like dirt? Bam, solved with a dose of someone else’s reality. And man did she do an overnight 180, which is just not realistic because behaviors are learned and a new one takes time and effort to achieve. And Roxanna lost her love? Problem solved with a revealing letter! Everything that had the potential to create some sort of conflict or a well developed plot just vanished with a snap of the author’s fingers.
I realize that I sound super negative, which is not the case because if you look at the book as a growing up and making friends story geared towards a younger audience, then the book was a cute story. When I focus on these two opposite girls becoming friends, I liked the book. Take away all the other things, and I think this was a good story. The book was not for me, but I know other people will like the story.
I received this title from the author and YA Bound Book Tours in return for my honest review.
Read on for a sneak peak from the book
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Roxanna
Barely anyone is around. A couple of feet away a mother and her young son are waiting for the train to Chicago and another man, who just entered the station, looks around a little lost and confused. I watch him for a little while. He pulls out a paper from his briefcase and looks at it. Finally he looks up again and walks over to the side where my train will arrive. Looks like he’ll be on it too.
My favorite song from the record starts playing
and a little sunlight shines on me. I lean back and close my eyes just for a second while the moment is still here, peaceful and calm. Unfortunately it soon gets disrupted by the vibration of my phone in the right pocket of my black, ripped jeans. I sigh.
Mom: Everything all right?
My mom worries too much. It isn’t good for her, for either of my parents. It makes me sad each time I remember that they are worried all the time because of me, which is logical because I’m their kid, but that it’s only enhanced even more by all that happened this last year. I quickly text her back that all is well and then put my phone back into my pocket.
The clock hanging to my right says it’s just past 1:00 p.m. which means my train will soon arrive. I get up from the bench, after turning off the music and taking my earbuds out, and grab my stuff. Slowly I walk toward the edge and look out for the train which I spot not far in the distance.
My slightly too big, black Arctic Monkeys t-shirt flutters around wildly as the train arrives. The wind sends my hair flying and I do my best with my left hand to keep it under control, just to avoid looking like a nutcase when boarding the train in a few minutes.
It comes to me as no surprise that my car is half empty, which makes finding a nice seat quite easy. Somewhere in the middle I choose a window seat and try to heave my suitcase into the baggage compartment, right next to my guitar, but somehow I’m not as strong as I thought I was. I’m about to give up as the briefcase man comes up to me and offers a hand. I thank him with a smile.
“Nice shirt,” he says with a wink.
His voice has a warm tone, his hair dark brown and his eyes almost a shade of gold. He’s really tall and wears a semi-cheap looking suit which seems to be just a tad too big for him. He doesn’t look half- bad I notice, but he’s at least ten years too old for me.
“Thanks,” I answer and take my seat.
He smiles and heads off to find himself a seat.
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Author Bio:
Alice Reeds was born in a small town in Germany but spent her first eight years in Florida, USA. Later on, she moved back to Europe, where her family moved around a lot. Alice is a soon-to-be freshman at University where she studies Political Science. In her free time Alice mostly writes, reads, or watches countless Let's plays.
You can find Alice on her
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Goodreads and
Twitter
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