Monday 22 July 2013

Vixen by Jillian Larkin - The ACTUAL Review


Date finished: 18 July 2013

Series: Vixen, #1

Rating 4*


Read the Goodreads description here.

So my first review of Vixen was actually a bit of a failure, seeing as I wrote about a paragraph reviewing the book and the rest was all babbling nonsense about procrastination and studying and… pretty much the biggest load of poo I’ve ever written in my entire life.

So now, a serious review on Vixen. The book deserves better than… whatever that was.

As I said in my other review, novels set in the early 1900s are my kryptonite. Vixen was no exception. It was glamorous, scandalous and “absolutely gorgeous, darling!” Sorry. It had to be done.

Gloria Carmody has it all: wealth, looks, a stunning voice, not to mention a rich, handsome fiancĂ©e, Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families. To the surprise of Gloria’s jealous, social-climbing best friend, Lorraine Dyer, Gloria isn’t happy with her life. She wants the flapper lifestyle – the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights. It’s just too bad for Gloria that her mother has brought in Clara Knowles, Gloria’s goody-two-shoes cousin, to ensure that the wedding runs smoothly, and that Gloria doesn’t step out of line. But Gloria is determined not to let her party days to slip away before they’ve even begun, and with Lorraine’s envy spilling over into a desperate state, it seems that no one is safe. Not to mention the fact that Clara isn’t exactly as lily-white as she appears, and has some dirty little secrets of her own that she’ll do anything to keep hidden…

Okay, so I’m going to be completely honest here and admit that the cover was what made me buy the book. Not the cover as much as the blurb on the back: “Young. Wealthy. Defiant. Beautiful. Dangerous. It’s 1923… And Anything Goes.” And then this quote from the dust cover: “Jazz… Booze… Boys… It’s a dangerous combination.” So let’s just give a round of applause to whomever came up with those quotes (as well as the Exclusive Books Winter Sale) for making me abandon my two rules of: a) never judge a book by its cover, and b) never buy anything unless you’ve read the first couple of pages (duh, to check if the author can actually write a book, because I have suffered through way too many books with potential, but the author messed it up with their terrible writing style). Well, I did it. I judged. And I loved it.

Let me make this quick and simple:
Storyline: 4* - at times it tended to drag on a bit (understandably – most books do - but this would have to be at Hunger Games level for five stars)

Writing: 3* - the writing sometimes tended to have a bit of an amateur touch, but was overall pretty good
Characters: 5* - wow, I loved them. They were relatable, cute, funny, and daring. Everything that 1920s flappers should be.

So overall, Vixen scored a fabulous four-out-of-five.

I recommend it to everyone who loved The Great Gatsby (yes, even those of you who only watched the movie… You’ve got to start somewhere, right?) And if you didn’t like The Great Gatsby… Well, you obviously need to go read/watch it again.


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