Book Review: The Queen of Kentucky

Author: Alecia Whitaker

Pages: 375

Year Published: 2012

My Rating: 3.5/ 5 stars!

Quick Synopsis from Goodreads:
Fourteen-year-old Kentucky girl Ricki Jo Winstead, who would prefer to be called Ericka, thank you very much, is eager to shed her farmer's daughter roots and become part of the popular crowd at her small town high school. She trades her Bible for Seventeen magazine, buys new "sophisticated" clothes and somehow manages to secure a tenuous spot at the cool kids table. She's on top of the world, even though her best friend and the boy next door Luke says he misses "plain old Ricki Jo." Caught between being a country girl and wannabe country club girl, Ricki Jo begins to forget who she truly is: someone who doesn't care what people think and who wouldn't let a good-looking guy walk all over her. It takes a serious incident out on Luke's farm for Ricki Jo to realize that being a true friend is more important than being popular.

Well, Alice Whitaker, you got me. You went beyond what I was excepting, and wrote an ostensibly cliché book into a one of a kind, one that you could call your own.

After reading the synopsis and the first few chapters, I thought I had the whole book figured out. First, Ricki Jo would be that awkward new girl at school, but then would slowly blossom into one of the "populars". Then she would catch the attention of her since-the-school-year-started crush, the hot but actually not hot bad boy Wolf. While their relationship developed, Luke, Ricki Jo's lifelong best friend, would be watching silently from the side (but not in a stalker-ish way) wishing that Ricki Jo would realize that he is the one who is truly for her. Then, several turn of events, including the realization that Wolf is actually a jerk, would lead to our naive yet oh so charming protagonist to discover that Luke was the one she should've loved from the beginning. The two would then have a heart-felt conversation, kiss, and live happily ever after.
 
Well, needless to say, this book was not like what it seemed.

Book Review: Beauty Queens

Author: Libba Bray

Pages: 400

Year Published: 2011

My Rating: 3.5 stars/ 5 stars

Quick Synopsis from Goodreads:
The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner. What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program - or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan - or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up? Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness.

I think ludicrously serious (...does that even make sense?!) is how I would describe Beauty Queens. It has such crazy concepts, some ridiculous characters, but amidst all that, it still deals with serious subjects such as feminism, sexuality, discrimination of different skin types, and social and cultural identity.

Book Review: Insurgent (Divergent #2)

Quick synopsis from Goodreads:
One choice can transform you--or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable--and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Author: Veronica Roth

My Rating: 3.5 stars

My Review:

This is the kind of book that will jumble your head with endless thoughts and waver your emotions to extreme lows and highs. That being said, I will be making a list of what I liked and didn't liked, to avoid any some random bursts of madness or just plain randomness ;)...