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A review by liralen
The Chapel Wars by Lindsey Leavitt
4.0
Leavitt's books are invariably cute, sweet, not too serious. The Princess for Hire series are my favourites to date, but this and Going Vintage are in many ways better books -- more complex character development; more complexity to the plot.
That is not to say that the premise is particularly believable -- a high school student inheriting a Las Vegas chapel? And tasked with bringing it out from the brink of financial ruin, stat? Not likely. But if anyone's up for the task, Holly is. She has her quirks, but she's basically a well-rounded teenager with interesting friends (and, bonus: friends who actually act like teenage guys) and a lot of experience working in a chapel.
I rail, with some regularity, against YA romance -- it's predictable; it's unrealistic. And probably I should have the same complaints here. But I knew exactly what I was getting into when I picked up the book (note: I won a firstreads copy, but prior to that I'd been checking the library catalogue every few days to see if they'd ordered a copy yet. Now that I have my hands on a copy, they've finally gotten around to putting some on order); I knew it would be cute and a little silly and there would be romance and I'd probably be okay with it, because the characters would be worth more than their romance(s) and the storytelling would be good and it would probably manage to surprise me somewhere along the line.
And all that held true. Marshmallow fluff, perhaps, but marshmallow fluff that manages to be good for you.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
That is not to say that the premise is particularly believable -- a high school student inheriting a Las Vegas chapel? And tasked with bringing it out from the brink of financial ruin, stat? Not likely. But if anyone's up for the task, Holly is. She has her quirks, but she's basically a well-rounded teenager with interesting friends (and, bonus: friends who actually act like teenage guys) and a lot of experience working in a chapel.
I rail, with some regularity, against YA romance -- it's predictable; it's unrealistic. And probably I should have the same complaints here. But I knew exactly what I was getting into when I picked up the book (note: I won a firstreads copy, but prior to that I'd been checking the library catalogue every few days to see if they'd ordered a copy yet. Now that I have my hands on a copy, they've finally gotten around to putting some on order); I knew it would be cute and a little silly and there would be romance and I'd probably be okay with it, because the characters would be worth more than their romance(s) and the storytelling would be good and it would probably manage to surprise me somewhere along the line.
And all that held true. Marshmallow fluff, perhaps, but marshmallow fluff that manages to be good for you.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.