Review from The Book Fairy's Haven

Well, holy glowing review from The Book Fairy's Haven! Any author will tell you how great a good review makes you feel, but ones like these really make those months of slaving over a manuscript worth it. A huge thank you to Tammy, who did such a thorough and thoughtful review.

"It's a fast, breezy and balmy read that immediately brings to mind hot summer days on the beach, mixed with the cosmopolitan but shallow life of typical Hollywood glamour.

 It would certainly be easy to mistake this for a rather superficial read, but throughout the novel, Jessica Park threads in wonderful themes of friendship and family dynamics that gives this book a wonderful and substantial amount of substance.

I was hooked from the start and the wonderful characters only served to add to that feeling. 

Dani?  

She's an awesome character. 

It's hard not to like a girl who is sweet, accommodating and so easy to relate to like Dani. What I especially loved is that you could see obvious character growing pains and experience both her growth, and her Hollywood bratty behaviour - and her learning to own up to her actions and faults was definitely one of the things that really made this book such wonderful read. 

There's nothing more that I love than characters that are flawed but willingly admit to making mistakes and taking steps to go about fixing them. She's a character who will make you smile, she'll make you want to hug her, and even though she'll cause you moments of frustration, you'll still find yourself rooting for her wholeheartedly. 

Another thing that I adored about this book, is that many of the chapters showcase Mark's point of view. I have to congratulate Jessica for including Mark's point of view, because without it, I don't think I would have had much sympathy for him, or liked him for that matter. 

As it is, despite his initial motives for wanting Dani to spend the summer with him (It's all about the image baby!), I loved that despite himself, he couldn't help but fall for the charmer of a girl. 

I loved how the relationship between Dani and Mark progressed and thought that it was handled with such a tender, breezy and obviously affectionate tone and manner (never in a manner that was rushed or unbelievable), that it seemed all the more real for it.  

From overwhelming Dani with all the things that his money manages to buy, to later relenting and allowing Dani to intervene in his love life, the two manage to find a new common ground and companionship with one another that neither were expecting. 

Want to know what else is fabulous? 

There's actually no real mean girl in this novel. Hooray for that!  Sure the friends she makes in LA are spoilt and get everything they want, but the girls aren't really mean - which for me, was incredibly refreshing (Can you tell I'm sick and tired of the whole mean girl angle in YA fiction?). 

Of course, there's also the romance in this novel. Caught between two boys, Dani naturally at first gravitates towards the hot-stud of a trainer.  But once the lights fade and the glitter falls off, is it really him that she wants to be with? 

I'm not going to say anything more on this really - except that I thought the romance, while not the overall focus of the novel, formed a nice backdrop which only added to an already strong story.

I did feel as if the ending was a little rushed and as if there were an issue or two that was still unresolved, but other than that, I can honestly say that I adored this cute, highly entertaining and very, very sweet read. 

It's definitely the perfect YA beach read and gets a well-deserved 4 star rating from me!"