Tag: Kelly Fiore

Review: Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore

Posted September 7, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Rowena’s review of Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore.

Pretty and popular track star Marijke Monti is confident about almost everything – she’s got great friends, a great family, and she’s on her way to the State Track Championship. In fact, the only thing Marijke isn’t confident about is her relationship with Tommy Lawson.

Lily Spencer has spent her entire high school career preparing for the future – she’s participated in every extracurricular activity and volunteer committee she could. But, at home, she watches her mother go on date after date with dud-dudes, still searching for “the one.” Lily realizes that she’s about to graduate and still hasn’t even had a boyfriend.

While they live on each other’s periphery at school, Lily and Marijke never seemed to have much in common; but, after a coincidental meeting at the movie theater, Lily gets an idea – why can’t life be like a movie? Why can’t they set up their perfect romantic situations, just in time for their senior prom, using movie techniques?

Once the girls come up with the perfect plans, they commit themselves to being secret cohorts and, just like in the movies, drama ensues.

What a cute book this turned out to be. This is one of those books that ended up being exactly what I wanted it to be and perfect for the mood that I was in.

Marijke is part of the popular crowd at school. She’s a track star who is heading to the state high school tournament. She’s got a great boyfriend that all of the girls like and like a lot of teenage girls her age, she’s insecure as all get out about that. She knows that Tommy likes her and only her but that doesn’t stop her from being insecure because Tommy hasn’t ever said that he loves her.

Lily on the other hand is the opposite of popular. She’s one of those overachievers who always goes unnoticed. She’s the person behind the scenes and nobody ever really notices her until she bumps into her long time crush, Joe Lombardi.

Marijke and Lily are at the same theater, watching the same movie when Marijke bursts out of the theater in tears and Lily follows her. They get to talking and they both agree that they wish their lives was just like the movies. Well, Marijke does. Lily’s spidey senses are tingling and she thinks a story is somewhere in this conversation so she comes up with the plan to help Marijke get the kind of love life she wants, by re-enacting famous grand gesture scenes from popular romantic comedies. But Marijke won’t do this alone. If she’s going to do this, she’s going to do this with Lily and Lily has to go after her long time crush, Joe Lombardi and just like that, the plan is put into action.

Marijke just wants her boyfriend to realize how much she loves him and in return, tell him how much she means to him. Lily just wants to go out on a date with Joe. But a lot of shenanigans follow these desires and it made for a fun read.

I will admit that Marijke’s insecurities drove me up the wall. Each and every single time that she doubted Tommy, I wanted to smack her upside her head. There were even times when I wanted Tommy to break up with her to show her that she can’t keep on not trusting him for their relationship to work. Tommy was a bonehead a lot of the time but he wasn’t a cheater. He was just a boy who did stupid things or didn’t think about anything but living in the moment. But in the end, I really came to like Marijke’s character. Of the two of them, I thought her transformation was greater. And sweeter.

But I liked Lily’s character as well. I liked the way that she thought (most of the time) and even when she did boneheaded things, I really liked her and I thought her little romance with Joe was just about the most adorable thing. I wonder if I would have thought the same thing had I caught on to the fact that Joe and Lily are my parents names. I doubt it, they were too cute for words.

Overall, this book delivered the goods for me. It was a cute story about two girls trying to make some changes in their lives and I liked it. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy contemporary YA stories, the cute ones. 🙂

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Walker Books for Young Readers. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Tagged: 4.0 Reviews, Contemporary, Kelly Fiore, Netgalley, Rowena's Reviews, Walker Books for Young Readers, Young Adult

Review: Taste Test by Kelly Fiore

Posted April 22, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Rowena’s review of Taste Test by Kelly Fiore.

If you can grill it, smoke it, or fry it, Nora Henderson knows all about it. She’s been basting baby back ribs and pulling pork at her father’s barbeque joint since she was tall enough to reach the counter. When she’s accepted to Taste Test, a reality-television teen cooking competition, Nora can’t wait to leave her humble hometown behind, even if it means saying good-bye to her dad and her best friend, Billy. Once she’s on set, run-ins with her high-society roommate and the maddeningly handsome—not to mention talented—son of a famous chef, Christian Van Lorten, mean Nora must work even harder to prove herself. But as mysterious accidents plague the kitchen arena, protecting her heart from one annoyingly charming fellow contestant in particular becomes the least of her concerns. Someone is conducting real-life eliminations, and if Nora doesn’t figure out who, she could be next to get chopped for good.

With romance and intrigue as delectable as the winning recipes included in the story, this debut novel will be devoured by all.

I love food. I love to cook, to bake and to find recipes for dishes I want to try out. What I’m not a fan of are those cooking challenge shows…except for Cupcake Wars. I love that show but the pressure on those cooking challenges shows like Top Chef, Master Chef and Hell’s Kitchen are too much for me. I’m always on pins and needles and well, I can’t handle it so I don’t watch them. So I have no idea why I wanted to read this book so much, only that I did.

And I liked it.

I thought it was cute. The romance that sprouted to life between Christian and Nora was unexpectedly sweet and even when they were driving me crazy, I liked them. I liked their story and the way that they came together.

Nora comes from a modest background. It’s just her and her father, who owns a BBQ joint back home and she knows her way around a kitchen. She watches Taste Test and likes to think about the different ways that she’d handle each challenge so after a talk with her best friend Billy, she decides that she’s going to try to get on the show. She wasn’t expecting to get on but she does and the whole experience changes her entire life.

When we first meet Christian, he is a complete snob. He laughs at Nora and is so cocky and arrogant about winning the show that it should have put him off but it didn’t. Fiore did a great job of straddling that douche bag line with Christian without actually going over it. I really came to love the heck out of Christian. He was such a good kid that I was really glad that Nora finally got over herself and her reservations and gave Christian a try. Their romance wasn’t easy and it was fraught with teenage angst but in the end, I was thoroughly satisfied with the book as a whole.

Overall, Nora was a solid character. She was likable. She was relatable. But there were times when I wanted to wring her neck. Her attitude sometimes got on my nerves but you can see the growth in her character as the book wore on. You can see her learning and growing and in the end, she turned out to be the girl that I hoped she’d be in the beginning. Her relationship with Christian was another thing that grew over the course of the book and seeing them bicker their way toward finally letting themselves be happy together was well worth the emotional roller coaster.

There were a few things that I thought were cheesy, but for the most part I liked the book. I’m glad that I read it and I think other fans of YA contemporary novels will enjoy this one.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

This book is available from Walkers Children. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.