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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
I absolutely loved this book! I could not stop reading it and when my dad returned it to the library before I was finished I almost broke down and cried! So not really, but I did love it! Though it may help that I am completely enthralled by the 20s and flappers. But from the moment I opened the book to the moment I set it down, I was in love. The characters were great (beautiful girls and hot guys!), the settings were realistic and there were some Mob affiliates in there too. I recommend this to anyone who loves the 20s!
This book is absolutely addictive. Larkin's sultry, tawdry, beautifully detailed 1920s Chicago drew me in immediately, and made me wish that I could be right there with Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine, witnessing the glory days of speakeasies and feeling the dangerous thrill of mingling with gangsters, musicians, and flappers.
Each chapter alternates between Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine, who all have very different motivations, but, in a way, the same goal--they all feel trapped in their lives and want to be something more they who they appear to be--they want to be who they really are.
Seventeen-year-old society girl Gloria wants to shirk her responsibilities for a life as a real flapper and a singer in a speakeasy. She's sick of having to put up with her nouveau riche family or her powerful, over-bearing fiancé--especially when she meets black jazz musician Jerome Johnson.
Clara, Gloria's wild cousin, has been to NYC and lived as a flapper, but has been tremendously hurt by a man she calls The Cad. After a particularly crazy night, she finds herself forced to leave New York and shipped to Chicago to stay with her aunt and cousin. Instead of rebelling against this plan, she goes along with it so that she can escape her flapper days and reinvent herself.
Then there's Lorraine, Gloria's reckless, jealous best friend, who wants all the things that Gloria has--beauty, talent, charm, a powerful fiancé, and gorgeous male best friend. She wants it so much that she allows her jealousy to overcome her and decides that she will overshadow Gloria, no matter the cost.
Not that I want to pick a favorite of the girls, but I found myself most loving Clara, the flapper running from her past by pretending to be a girl from the country visiting her rich and perfect younger cousin. Although that story arc would have been enough by itself, she also meets Marcus Eastman, Gloria's male best friend and the object of Lorraine's desire, who is just the right combination of bad boy charm and genuine sweetness.
Vixen is chalk full of drama, back-stabbing, ulterior motives, and forbidden loves. Overall, this book, with its film noir qualities and jazz lingo (Really, why don't we use the term "cat's pajamas" anymore?) is the cat's pajamas. It's fun and dramatic and smolderingly sexy, and definitely a series that I will continue to read.
Each chapter alternates between Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine, who all have very different motivations, but, in a way, the same goal--they all feel trapped in their lives and want to be something more they who they appear to be--they want to be who they really are.
Seventeen-year-old society girl Gloria wants to shirk her responsibilities for a life as a real flapper and a singer in a speakeasy. She's sick of having to put up with her nouveau riche family or her powerful, over-bearing fiancé--especially when she meets black jazz musician Jerome Johnson.
Clara, Gloria's wild cousin, has been to NYC and lived as a flapper, but has been tremendously hurt by a man she calls The Cad. After a particularly crazy night, she finds herself forced to leave New York and shipped to Chicago to stay with her aunt and cousin. Instead of rebelling against this plan, she goes along with it so that she can escape her flapper days and reinvent herself.
Then there's Lorraine, Gloria's reckless, jealous best friend, who wants all the things that Gloria has--beauty, talent, charm, a powerful fiancé, and gorgeous male best friend. She wants it so much that she allows her jealousy to overcome her and decides that she will overshadow Gloria, no matter the cost.
Not that I want to pick a favorite of the girls, but I found myself most loving Clara, the flapper running from her past by pretending to be a girl from the country visiting her rich and perfect younger cousin. Although that story arc would have been enough by itself, she also meets Marcus Eastman, Gloria's male best friend and the object of Lorraine's desire, who is just the right combination of bad boy charm and genuine sweetness.
Vixen is chalk full of drama, back-stabbing, ulterior motives, and forbidden loves. Overall, this book, with its film noir qualities and jazz lingo (Really, why don't we use the term "cat's pajamas" anymore?) is the cat's pajamas. It's fun and dramatic and smolderingly sexy, and definitely a series that I will continue to read.
Flappers in Chicago, girls wanting to make their own decisions, alcohol and cigarettes, the haunting of past decisions. These are the things that come together in "Vixen" and Larkin does a fair job of establishing characters, setting and atmosphere. The first in a series, Larkin perhaps closes too many outstanding loopholes - there's only one incentive to read the next book, and it requires a great attachment to the characters. Those characters did not create such a drive in me - perhaps they would in the target demographic (this is, after all, a YA novel) - but there was a little too much forceful push of the "rebel girls", and the "good girls" were cardboard cut-outs, when so much could have been explored through them.
I was equally dismayed with the combination of modern slang and Prohibition-era slang, as if the author, or characters, couldn't quite decide how to speak. It made just one distraction too many for me to flag this as a truly engaging book. I did finish it in a day -- but that was more through sheer perseverance than a desire to know what would happen next.
I was equally dismayed with the combination of modern slang and Prohibition-era slang, as if the author, or characters, couldn't quite decide how to speak. It made just one distraction too many for me to flag this as a truly engaging book. I did finish it in a day -- but that was more through sheer perseverance than a desire to know what would happen next.
This was a struggle to get through. I picked it up on the recommendation of a librarian. Just boring, the characters felt cardboard. I wasn't really transported back in time to that era. If anything it all felt like they were playing a game and not a very good one. I'm now interested in The Luxe series based on other reviews from this book though, but I think it might be a pass.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Okay, I only bought this book because it was fifty percent off but it ended up really surprising. It is very similarly written to Anna Godbersen's the Luxe Series but in a different time period and the characters are all their own. It definitely got me into the 20's and ghe roaring twenties. Oh and I fell hard for Marcus!
When I first started this book, I was very disappointed. The first few chapters were over explained and shallow. Despite the fact that this is categorized as a young adult novel, I do not think that authors need to regard their readers as incapable just because they are not yet adults. Most readers are capable of interpreting a characters actions into emotion. I don't need to be told the character is angry after she has just thrown a vase against a wall.
But somewhere in the middle the explaining disappeared and I got invested in the story. Especially once the secrets started to come out.
Vixen is a fluffy, YA novel set in the 20's. The setting is intriguing on it's own. Women are becoming more independent and are pushing the boundaries of behavior and fashion. Speak easies are ripe with the mob, jazz music and curious patrons. The era gives off an aromatic independence that hypnotizes everyone into believing that they don't have to live the life that has been planned out for them.
I developed no emotional attachment to the characters other than wanting to know what was going to happen next. There are enough secrets to keep the reader intrigued. All the girls are hiding part of themselves from each other. I didn't fully understand the problems each girl was having. Why was Gloria so eager to break free from her life? What desperation was behind Lorriane's actions? Did Clara really want to be the country cousin she was masquerading as? I never really found answers to these questions despite a few lines thrown in by the author. And even when I was told, I didn't quite believe it.
The story kept me entertained but not captivated so I could read while still engaging with my toddler. Sometimes a book like that is necessary. I don't always want to be so captivated that my child could burn down the house before I noticed anything amiss. There are great books out there that can captivate in that way. Books that give me an emotional hangover. Characters I miss. Worlds I want to visit again and again. Stories that break my heart when they are over because I don't want to let any of it go. This book doesn't do that and sometimes that is ok.
I am eager to learn what happens in the second book, but not so eager as to buy the book. I will wait for it patiently, although my name is already on the library's waiting list.
But somewhere in the middle the explaining disappeared and I got invested in the story. Especially once the secrets started to come out.
Vixen is a fluffy, YA novel set in the 20's. The setting is intriguing on it's own. Women are becoming more independent and are pushing the boundaries of behavior and fashion. Speak easies are ripe with the mob, jazz music and curious patrons. The era gives off an aromatic independence that hypnotizes everyone into believing that they don't have to live the life that has been planned out for them.
I developed no emotional attachment to the characters other than wanting to know what was going to happen next. There are enough secrets to keep the reader intrigued. All the girls are hiding part of themselves from each other. I didn't fully understand the problems each girl was having. Why was Gloria so eager to break free from her life? What desperation was behind Lorriane's actions? Did Clara really want to be the country cousin she was masquerading as? I never really found answers to these questions despite a few lines thrown in by the author. And even when I was told, I didn't quite believe it.
The story kept me entertained but not captivated so I could read while still engaging with my toddler. Sometimes a book like that is necessary. I don't always want to be so captivated that my child could burn down the house before I noticed anything amiss. There are great books out there that can captivate in that way. Books that give me an emotional hangover. Characters I miss. Worlds I want to visit again and again. Stories that break my heart when they are over because I don't want to let any of it go. This book doesn't do that and sometimes that is ok.
I am eager to learn what happens in the second book, but not so eager as to buy the book. I will wait for it patiently, although my name is already on the library's waiting list.
Hmmmm. I picked up this book because it reminded me of the Bright Young Things series by Anna Godbersen, which I am very much looking forward to the next book. I think that may have influenced my opinion though. It's a very similar book, not to Godbersen's BYT but to her Luxe series, set in the Gilded Age in Manhattan, rather than the 20's, and it bothered me how many similarities there were.
First, you have the golden girl (Gloria/Elizabeth) who is engaged to a swoonworthy bachelor (Bastian/Henry) but doesn't love him, she loves someone inappropriate for a girl of her standing, whether it be in social class or race (Will/Jerome). Then you have the duplicitous best friend (Lorraine/Penelope though I don't know if she counts as a best friend) who is somehow involved with said fiance and is usually looking out for only herself even if she means well. And then there's a girl who has crafted a web of lies that she's struggling to keep (Clara/Lina) to gain higher standing in society.
Ahem. I think I've made my point. Anyway, the entire book I kept drawing these parallels in my head, because there aren't that many Gossip Girl-esque historical fiction series out there. I personally like Godbersen's writing and characters a little bit better, and she was at least an original idea when she wrote her series. If you really love historical fiction, the twenties details are very accurate and informative, but otherwise go try Anna Godbersen instead.
First, you have the golden girl (Gloria/Elizabeth) who is engaged to a swoonworthy bachelor (Bastian/Henry) but doesn't love him, she loves someone inappropriate for a girl of her standing, whether it be in social class or race (Will/Jerome). Then you have the duplicitous best friend (Lorraine/Penelope though I don't know if she counts as a best friend) who is somehow involved with said fiance and is usually looking out for only herself even if she means well. And then there's a girl who has crafted a web of lies that she's struggling to keep (Clara/Lina) to gain higher standing in society.
Ahem. I think I've made my point. Anyway, the entire book I kept drawing these parallels in my head, because there aren't that many Gossip Girl-esque historical fiction series out there. I personally like Godbersen's writing and characters a little bit better, and she was at least an original idea when she wrote her series. If you really love historical fiction, the twenties details are very accurate and informative, but otherwise go try Anna Godbersen instead.