Tuesday, January 13, 2009

So, I Read 13 Little Blue Envelopes

It's not going to count as one of my "Romance Reading Challenge" books.

I'm glad I read it. It was full of adventure, but in a realistic way. The main character was kind of annoying, but she began to grow on me, and was likeable by the end of the book.

It was not, however, a romance. The book had romance - adventure & love. But a romantic relationship was not the point of the story. The story actually dealt with the protagonist's relationship with her aunt, and self-realization.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Way, Way Back, Many Centuries Ago

I have to admit, when younger, I was obsessed with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Thus, the not-exactly-literary title of this post. But the title does refer to something literary - my relationship with Melissa Walker.

Back when I still had a MySpace, Ms. Walker sent me a message. I had taken a picture of my backyard, which at the time, was in the basement of this shitty old house on W. Huron in Ann Arbor. The backyard had this pretty, ethereal look to it, though. It was the setting that a child-like imagination such as mine half-expects flittering, glittery fairies to appear in. Magical.

So, Ms. Walker sent me a message about how it was cool, or pretty, or something generic. Basically, she'd seen me lurking in some of the YA pages, and wanted me to check out her books.

I'd heard they were good (from her fans, who are admittedly a biased source). And I really wanted to like them. Ms. Walker worked/works for fashion magazines, something I wish I could do, myself. Except, you know, that would never happen because I don't have fashion sense and I don't think I could make it in New York city, which is, I believe, the crux of the fashion magazine world. I was intrigued by these books about a girl who becomes involved in modeling, one of those "discovered talent" books, especially as it was written by an inside source in the fashion world. How could I go wrong, right?

Wrong. Ms. Walker seems like a sweet person, as can be seen from her Myspace, her blog, or any of the vlogs she's done recently, but I didn't like her book Violet on the Runway.

For me, the book was predictable, and the writing, while not bad, just wasn't done well enough to save the book from being slightly boring. My favorite thing about the books? The name of the protagonist - Violet. I think that name is beautiful. Way prettier than mine. But sadly, a name does not carry a book.

Violet on the Runway is the first book in a series, thus far containing three books (I'm not sure if more are intended or not). The second two books might be better, but I plan to just steer clear, as I wasn't too fond of the first book. Others were, such as the person who gave this cute, rambling review. But I wasn't.