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thenextgenlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
“It’s probably better than thinking that nothing you feel or do can ever make a difference, right? I’d rather believe in something.”
annalisa4's review against another edition
2.0
2.75 - it just fell flat for me, some parts of the book wasn’t needed
dorisede's review against another edition
5.0
As always, a masterpiece from Emma Mills. It's a five star read for me this time around. That's how much I enjoyed this book.
Original Review
In this book, Sophie tries to raise money for her school's marching band so they can go to the Rose parade. She tries to get a famous country star Megan Pleasant who is from her small town of Acadia to perform in the fundraiser. Obviously, this not all that happens in this book but I don't want to spoil the book for anyone. If someone asked me to tell them what this book is about, I would say it is about friendships. It is about those friends you have known for so long that they are basically family to you and the new ones you make along the way.
I am going to do a little character sketch about our group of friends. We have:
Brit: She is the crazy one. She can be brutally honest and she loves teasing people. She can say mean things sometimes but she would do anything for her friends. She is also really funny.
Dash: He is the serious one in the group. He has a good sense of humor and you can always count on him to give you a ride in his car "the cutlass".
Terrence: What can I say about him except he is the perfect example of a jolly good fellow.
Flora: She is the charmer. She is easygoing and has a very warm personality.
Sophie: And then, there's Sophie our main character. The book is told from her perspective. She is the one who loves too much. She is incredibly loyal and always committed to her friends and everything else. And she is always trying to fix things.
August: He is the new kid in town, still trying to find his place. He gets adopted by Sophie's group of friends. He is funny and even though he messes up sometimes, he is still a great guy. He is Sophie's love interest.
I think is safe to say that everyone in this book is really funny. I mean that's a given in any Emma Mills book. The friends in this book are so amazing, I wouldn't mind being friends with them in real life. It is a great feel good book that will make you laugh so hard. I loved everything about this book, it was simply amazing.
Original Review
In this book, Sophie tries to raise money for her school's marching band so they can go to the Rose parade. She tries to get a famous country star Megan Pleasant who is from her small town of Acadia to perform in the fundraiser. Obviously, this not all that happens in this book but I don't want to spoil the book for anyone. If someone asked me to tell them what this book is about, I would say it is about friendships. It is about those friends you have known for so long that they are basically family to you and the new ones you make along the way.
I am going to do a little character sketch about our group of friends. We have:
Brit: She is the crazy one. She can be brutally honest and she loves teasing people. She can say mean things sometimes but she would do anything for her friends. She is also really funny.
Dash: He is the serious one in the group. He has a good sense of humor and you can always count on him to give you a ride in his car "the cutlass".
Terrence: What can I say about him except he is the perfect example of a jolly good fellow.
Flora: She is the charmer. She is easygoing and has a very warm personality.
Sophie: And then, there's Sophie our main character. The book is told from her perspective. She is the one who loves too much. She is incredibly loyal and always committed to her friends and everything else. And she is always trying to fix things.
August: He is the new kid in town, still trying to find his place. He gets adopted by Sophie's group of friends. He is funny and even though he messes up sometimes, he is still a great guy. He is Sophie's love interest.
I think is safe to say that everyone in this book is really funny. I mean that's a given in any Emma Mills book. The friends in this book are so amazing, I wouldn't mind being friends with them in real life. It is a great feel good book that will make you laugh so hard. I loved everything about this book, it was simply amazing.
lilyevangeline's review against another edition
3.0
Because apparently being in quarentine means I'm going to read EVERY Emma Mills book.
Although honestly, they're all starting to blend together. I've got nothing to say about this one that i haven't said about her other books--female friendships and a cute romance and good banter and self-discovery. The one exception in this book was that the female lead is actually a very nice, kind, and unselfish person, whereas often her leads are a little self-absorbed.
Heres a new thing: The thing that I like about Emma Mills books is that in every single one of them I've had at least one moment where I strongly identify with the main character and one of the mistakes she makes. One moment where I think, "I've done that same thing, but I never realized it before. I never thought about it before," and so in virtue of that, as the MC comes to understand herself better, I come to understand myself better--especially the self that I was in highschool. And I really appreciate that, because my high school experience was a bit odd, and there are very few contemporary books about high schoolers that I identify with at all.
Although honestly, they're all starting to blend together. I've got nothing to say about this one that i haven't said about her other books--female friendships and a cute romance and good banter and self-discovery. The one exception in this book was that the female lead is actually a very nice, kind, and unselfish person, whereas often her leads are a little self-absorbed.
Heres a new thing: The thing that I like about Emma Mills books is that in every single one of them I've had at least one moment where I strongly identify with the main character and one of the mistakes she makes. One moment where I think, "I've done that same thing, but I never realized it before. I never thought about it before," and so in virtue of that, as the MC comes to understand herself better, I come to understand myself better--especially the self that I was in highschool. And I really appreciate that, because my high school experience was a bit odd, and there are very few contemporary books about high schoolers that I identify with at all.
hellomadalyn's review against another edition
3.0
This review originally appeared on Novel Ink.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Emma Mills has quickly become one of my favorite YA contemporary authors. She excels at writing dialogue and at creating characters who truly feel like real teenagers. I went into Famous in a Small Town fully ready to fall in love again, but unfortunately, this one just didn't do it for me.
For the first 100 pages or so, this was shaping up to be a five-star book. I mean, it has all of the things I love: small town coziness, friendship feels, witty dialogue, marching band, and country stars! However, while I love all of these pieces on their own, I don’t feel that Mills was able to pull all of these disparate elements together in a cohesive way.
As always, I loved the characters in this story. Sophie, in particular, was such a wonderful MC. Her group of friends was a lovable crowd of band nerds who felt a lot like my group of friends in high school, which was fun. The friendships in Mills’s books always deliver, and Famous was no exception on that front. I did like August, Sophie’s love interest, overall, though I felt like he acted like a jerk on multiple occasions. His behavior felt like teenage mistakes, though, as opposed to actual being-a-jerk (does that even make sense???). In fact, all of the friends make mistakes and hurt each other, but they always learn from and apologize for the hurt they cause. The romance was a sweet friends-to-lovers pairing.
The dialogue, too, was a highlight of Famous (as it is with most of Mills’s books!). All of her trademark snark and wit are present. I found myself laughing out loud every few pages because of a line or a comeback that completely took me by surprise.
A large issue I had with this stems from the pacing, I think. After reading the first third, I started to get a little worried, because it… didn’t feel like anything was happening? And, don’t get me wrong, I love a good slice-of-life contemporary, but Famous wasn’t exactly that, either. It almost felt like there were too many competing plot points happening at once, and because of this, Mills didn’t have the time to give any of them the development they needed. For example, the Meagan Pleasant plotline– which to me, was one of the main draws of this book. However, it’s hardly mentioned after the first 100 pages, and it almost felt as though Mills forgot about it until the end and was forced to hastily pull together an ending in the last few pages.
My main issue, though, has to do with a “plot twist” that’s thrown in toward the last third of the book. It felt really cheap, not to mention unnecessary to the story or the characters. Honestly, it threw me so much that it truly dampened my enjoyment of the remainder of the book. I simply do not understand why this was included in the book at all, if I’m being honest.
Overall, though I’ll continue to pick up whatever Emma Mills writes in the future, Famous in a Small Town missed the mark for me.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Emma Mills has quickly become one of my favorite YA contemporary authors. She excels at writing dialogue and at creating characters who truly feel like real teenagers. I went into Famous in a Small Town fully ready to fall in love again, but unfortunately, this one just didn't do it for me.
For the first 100 pages or so, this was shaping up to be a five-star book. I mean, it has all of the things I love: small town coziness, friendship feels, witty dialogue, marching band, and country stars! However, while I love all of these pieces on their own, I don’t feel that Mills was able to pull all of these disparate elements together in a cohesive way.
As always, I loved the characters in this story. Sophie, in particular, was such a wonderful MC. Her group of friends was a lovable crowd of band nerds who felt a lot like my group of friends in high school, which was fun. The friendships in Mills’s books always deliver, and Famous was no exception on that front. I did like August, Sophie’s love interest, overall, though I felt like he acted like a jerk on multiple occasions. His behavior felt like teenage mistakes, though, as opposed to actual being-a-jerk (does that even make sense???). In fact, all of the friends make mistakes and hurt each other, but they always learn from and apologize for the hurt they cause. The romance was a sweet friends-to-lovers pairing.
The dialogue, too, was a highlight of Famous (as it is with most of Mills’s books!). All of her trademark snark and wit are present. I found myself laughing out loud every few pages because of a line or a comeback that completely took me by surprise.
A large issue I had with this stems from the pacing, I think. After reading the first third, I started to get a little worried, because it… didn’t feel like anything was happening? And, don’t get me wrong, I love a good slice-of-life contemporary, but Famous wasn’t exactly that, either. It almost felt like there were too many competing plot points happening at once, and because of this, Mills didn’t have the time to give any of them the development they needed. For example, the Meagan Pleasant plotline– which to me, was one of the main draws of this book. However, it’s hardly mentioned after the first 100 pages, and it almost felt as though Mills forgot about it until the end and was forced to hastily pull together an ending in the last few pages.
My main issue, though, has to do with a “plot twist” that’s thrown in toward the last third of the book. It felt really cheap, not to mention unnecessary to the story or the characters. Honestly, it threw me so much that it truly dampened my enjoyment of the remainder of the book. I simply do not understand why this was included in the book at all, if I’m being honest.
Overall, though I’ll continue to pick up whatever Emma Mills writes in the future, Famous in a Small Town missed the mark for me.
giulay's review
2.0
"But everyone changes. The way you feel about people changes. Same goes for places, I guess."
TW: talk of suicide, mention of drugs
Actual rating: 2.5 ⭐️
Unpopular Opinion Time 🐸☕️
Well, this was boring.
I mean, I’m gonna keep this Rather Random Review™️ short because I simply don’t have the energy right now, and also because there’s very little to say.
The cast of characters was just unremarkable.
Their personalities did not shine through; they fell flat and tedious and they were not really memorable, in my opinion.
I liked how close and supportive they all were (their dynamics were lovely and their inside jokes were funny), and how caring and kind Sophie was. But apart from that, I found them not fully developed. Their pasts, problems and relationships were just mentioned in passing and they weren’t really elaborated. And it was just a pity. I wanted to know more about them so to actually (maybe?) care about them, but alas, that was not the case.
Moreover, I would have loved the topic of family to be more present. Sophie’s family was clearly very important to her; August’s family, too, was something that could have been interesting to analyse a bit more in depth. Brit’s relationship with her brother; Flora’s parents; Dash's new relation. And yet we don’t really see all that or get to know about their relations and it felt a bit like a missed opportunity.
The romance was laughable.
There was no chemistry whatsoever between the two characters, not even if you were to actually actively look for it. Let the scavenge hunt begin - and good luck finding chemistry here, because it was completely missing.
And it also kinda felt like insta-love. The girl sees the guy and she’s immediately thinking “woah, good-looking. I could date that” mmmmm…yeah, okay.
And how many times did the new kid “grinned”? I swear to god, make it stop 😩
Also I didn’t really like the whole miscommunication thing. Just talk and be honest, for crying out loud - especially after you got to know each other. Stop keeping useless secrets and thinking you know everything about the other person.
The plot itself was boring.
There were elements of mystery (as in: what’s August’s past and why is this singer not in Arcadia anymore) but they weren’t gripping. Yet again, these elements didn’t really deliver, and thus made the book boring. There’s no other way to say it: the plot was not thrilling.
It centered pretty heavily around marching bad and music - and that questionable love story. The first two weren’t bad topics per se but they were the only particularity that set this book aside from any other YA contemporary, and that simply was not enough.
Even if the ending was darker than I anticipated and took a turn I did not expect, I still wasn’t a fan of how the story developed, and I didn't like the tropes that were used to wrap things up.
Main - and only - thing I liked about Famous in a Small Town was the writing style. It was pleasant and flowed effortlessly. The dialogues were funny and made me chuckle from time to time. But that’s Emma Mills for you right there.
I will still read her next novel, because they are just like candy, tbh. Fluffy and easy to read contemporaries with great friendship dynamics.
Unfortunately Famous in a Small Town didn’t really deliver, in my opinion, and fell short.
This book didn’t even come close to the awesomeness that was This Adventure Ends (go read that, btw!) and disappointed me a little.
This was indeed an easy read, and it was not bad. But I just thought it was nothing special :/
"Given the chance, people will tell you exactly how they feel. You just have to be willing to listen."
TW: talk of suicide, mention of drugs
Actual rating: 2.5 ⭐️
Unpopular Opinion Time 🐸☕️
Well, this was boring.
I mean, I’m gonna keep this Rather Random Review™️ short because I simply don’t have the energy right now, and also because there’s very little to say.
The cast of characters was just unremarkable.
Their personalities did not shine through; they fell flat and tedious and they were not really memorable, in my opinion.
I liked how close and supportive they all were (their dynamics were lovely and their inside jokes were funny), and how caring and kind Sophie was. But apart from that, I found them not fully developed. Their pasts, problems and relationships were just mentioned in passing and they weren’t really elaborated. And it was just a pity. I wanted to know more about them so to actually (maybe?) care about them, but alas, that was not the case.
Moreover, I would have loved the topic of family to be more present. Sophie’s family was clearly very important to her; August’s family, too, was something that could have been interesting to analyse a bit more in depth. Brit’s relationship with her brother; Flora’s parents; Dash's new relation. And yet we don’t really see all that or get to know about their relations and it felt a bit like a missed opportunity.
The romance was laughable.
There was no chemistry whatsoever between the two characters, not even if you were to actually actively look for it. Let the scavenge hunt begin - and good luck finding chemistry here, because it was completely missing.
And it also kinda felt like insta-love. The girl sees the guy and she’s immediately thinking “woah, good-looking. I could date that” mmmmm…yeah, okay.
And how many times did the new kid “grinned”? I swear to god, make it stop 😩
Also I didn’t really like the whole miscommunication thing. Just talk and be honest, for crying out loud - especially after you got to know each other. Stop keeping useless secrets and thinking you know everything about the other person.
The plot itself was boring.
There were elements of mystery (as in: what’s August’s past and why is this singer not in Arcadia anymore) but they weren’t gripping. Yet again, these elements didn’t really deliver, and thus made the book boring. There’s no other way to say it: the plot was not thrilling.
It centered pretty heavily around marching bad and music - and that questionable love story. The first two weren’t bad topics per se but they were the only particularity that set this book aside from any other YA contemporary, and that simply was not enough.
Even if the ending was darker than I anticipated and took a turn I did not expect, I still wasn’t a fan of how the story developed, and I didn't like the tropes that were used to wrap things up.
Main - and only - thing I liked about Famous in a Small Town was the writing style. It was pleasant and flowed effortlessly. The dialogues were funny and made me chuckle from time to time. But that’s Emma Mills for you right there.
I will still read her next novel, because they are just like candy, tbh. Fluffy and easy to read contemporaries with great friendship dynamics.
Unfortunately Famous in a Small Town didn’t really deliver, in my opinion, and fell short.
This book didn’t even come close to the awesomeness that was This Adventure Ends (go read that, btw!) and disappointed me a little.
This was indeed an easy read, and it was not bad. But I just thought it was nothing special :/
"Given the chance, people will tell you exactly how they feel. You just have to be willing to listen."
purplejumping's review
5.0
This book was way more intriguing than I had expected for a typical YA romance (girl chases mystery guy).
The first half of the novel had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and ample character development.
The second half...TWISTS!! So many plot reveals wow.... I only saw maybe at most one of them coming.
And of course the ending was adorable.
The first half of the novel had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and ample character development.
The second half...TWISTS!! So many plot reveals wow.... I only saw maybe at most one of them coming.
And of course the ending was adorable.
iremromanoff's review against another edition
3.0
so listen i loved foolish hearts i really did so i had high expectations for this one but it just didn’t hit where it should’ve hit im not saying it was bad or anything it was actually quick to read but it was like eh? the plot felt rushed? loved the main character tho she’s just like me so 3 ⭐️ overall