Monthly Archives: September 2023

Sep26

The Revenge Game by Jordyn Taylor- Review

Posted on by
Standard

Alyson, the high school junior, protagonist of this book, is a hopeful romantic. She even wants to write romance novels someday after attending a prestigious college with a first rate literature and writing department.

Her problem? She comes across to the first boy she’s interested in as desperate and, after she overhears him talking about her not in a good way, she determines to be more cautious as she moves on from this embarrassment.

But her resolution doesn’t last long. The first day of the new school year, she finds herself attracted to a senior lacrosse superstar. To her astonishment, her teacher pairs her with him for a class project.

Before she knows it, she finds herself falling for him as they seem to hit it off immediately. He’s kind and sexy and nothing like she thought he might be as the big man on campus. They seem to have a lot in common even though she is a library nerd and he’s a sports star.

At a camping trip with other students, one of Alyson’s friends overhears a conversation with some of the boys. It seems they have a contest going called the King’s Cup. Points are awarded to the young men for various acts related to the opposite sex.

Upon learning of this, the girls set up a Queen’s Cup for dumping boys publicly because of this point system.

Alyson is sure her lacrosse player, Riggs, isn’t part of the King’s Cup. He even tells her he thinks it’s a stupid game.

She helps her friends with their plans for the Queen’s Cup and is pretty much the ringleader of the quest to expose the boys in the King’s Cup to ridicule. But she is relentless in her belief in Riggs. She feels sorry for the other girls that they can’t find a true and loyal boyfriend.

As the book progresses, the book moves from flashbacks of Alyson and Riggs during the school year to various news reports of Riggs being missing after the prom in May.

The way the author moves the story from time to time is seamless and intriguing. We as the readers know something bad may have happened to Riggs and the story keeps us turning pages to see what occurred to cause his disappearance.

Alyson is likable and funny.  She’s a well-rounded character with a few blind spots but, she’s a teenager, so that’s expected. I enjoyed her and her personality. I liked she had a good family relationship and loyal friendships.

The last chapter seemed a bit off for the character to me but that’s really my only issue with the story. I didn’t think it rang true for the character we’d learned about in the rest of the story.

An enjoyable, intriguing read with a unique presentation. And it ticked a lot of boxes for our times, including feminism, family dynamics, date rape, and empowerment over misogyny in a boarding school environment.

Thank you to Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

BLURB:

Alyson is a romantic, and sometimes it gets her into trouble. Like last summer, she thought her co-worker was into her, when in reality he found her flirting pathetic.

Then she meets Brenton Riggs Jr., and right away she knows that their connection isn’t just in her head. When he swoops in to save her one night from a less than savory party encounter, she falls head-over-heels. Finally, someone Alyson likes who likes her back!

But when she finds out about the King’s Cup—a competition the guys at their boarding school started to see who has the most sexual prowess—she’s put on edge. Does Brenton really want to be with her, or is he just trying to win? Then Alyson and the other girls at the school start a competition of their own: The Queen’s Cup. It’s all about reclaiming their power. But as the competition heats up, Alyson’s relationship begins to fall apart—and it isn’t long before the cracks in her perfect love story start to show through.

Sep18

The Trouble with You- by Ellen Feldman- A review

Posted on by
Standard

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Franny Fabricant was the product of her time as well as her position in life. Although she graduated from one of the Seven Sisters colleges, she was mostly educated in order to be a successful wife and mother as well as to support her husband’s career by being a good conversationalist and able to hold her own at dinner and cocktail parties.

Her mother passed away while she was still young and thus her aunt, Rose, had a strong effect on her along with the culture in which she was raised. Sometimes the two forces were diametrically opposed. And that is the crux of the story. How Fanny navigates not only young widowhood, being a single mother, and learning how to support herself and her daughter makes for a very interesting story. Throw in the McCarthyism and two men who are polar opposites and therein lies the inner conflict of the main character.

I enjoyed reading Franny’s journey and rooting for her to make the right decisions. Her aunt Rose was a great character and her story was intriguing as well. We got it in little dribbles, but she was a strong character who lived a full life herself even though many people in the book felt sorry for her for never marrying. I liked this character a lot.

This book moves at a nice pace. No explosions, car chases or other crazy drama, just a lovely read with a likeable cast of characters—although one of the men set my teeth on edge—in a good way as far as bringing conflict to the plot.

The setting, era and morals of the day are well set out by the author and this is just very much an enjoyable read. Five Stars.

Description

In an exuberant post WWII New York City, a young woman is forced to reinvent her life and choose between the safe and the ethical, and the men who represent each…

Set in New York City in the heady aftermath of World War II when the men were coming home, the women were exhaling in relief, and everyone was having babies, The Trouble With You is the story of a young woman whose rosy future is upended in a single instant. Raised never to step out of bounds, educated in one of the Sister Seven Colleges for a career as a wife and mother, torn between her cousin Mimi who is determined to keep her a “nice girl”—the kind that marries a doctor—and her aunt Rose who has a rebellious past of her own, Fanny struggles to raise her young daughter and forge a new life by sheer will and pluck. When she gets a job as a secretary to the “queen” of radio serials—never to be referred to as soaps—she discovers she likes working, and through her friendship with an actress who stars in the series and a man who writes them, comes face to face with the blacklist which is destroying careers and wrecking lives. Ultimately, Fanny must decide between playing it safe or doing what she knows is right in this vivid evocation of a world that seems at once light years away and strangely immediate.