Tag: Point

Review: We Can Work It Out by Elizabeth Eulberg

Posted February 17, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

we can work it out
Rowena’s review of We Can Work it Out (Lonely Hearts Club #1) by Elizabeth Eulberg.

When Penny Lane started The Lonely Hearts Club, the goal was simple: to show that girls didn’t need to define themselves by how guys look at them, and didn’t have to value boyfriends over everything else. Penny thought she’d be an outcast for life…but then the club became far more popular than she ever imagined it would be.

But what happens when the girl who never thought she’d date a good guy suddenly finds herself dating a great one? She doesn’t need a boyfriend… but she wants it to work out with this particular boyfriend. And he wants it to work out with her.

Only, things keep getting in the way. Feelings keep getting hurt. Words keep getting misunderstood.

Penny Lane worked hard to declare her independence. Now she needs to figure out what to do with it — and how to balance what she wants with what everyone else wants. In We Can Work It Out, Elizabeth Eulberg returns to the world of her first novel, The Lonely Hearts Club, and gets to the heart of how hard relationships can be… and why they are sometimes worth all the drama and comedy they create.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book ever since I found out that it was coming out. I enjoyed Penny and Ryan from The Lonely Hearts Club and while I did enjoy parts of this book, most of it drove me up the wall.

So this book takes place not too long after the end of The Lonely Hearts Club. Penny has founded the girls club The Lonely Hearts Club and all girls who have had their hearts broken are welcome to join. They have fun together, they are there for each other and while that’s all fine and dandy, I found their whole club thing tiresome. They were much too busy and they had too many damn rules. It was all sisters before misters, all of the time that I felt like they turned themselves into little heart breakers themselves.

Penny stretches herself too thin in this book and instead of me feeling bad for her, I stayed pissed off at her. This book is about Penny finding balance between the club, her school work and dating Ryan. It was like she felt because she started the club, they should always come first and everything else in her life took a back seat. I thought Ryan took a back seat to the club for far too long that by about the middle of the book, I thought Ryan should dump Penny for good because he deserved someone that would put him first some of the time. I mean, on top of always coming in second to the club, he had to deal with her not wanting to act like a couple while they were in public because someone from the club might see.

It was all so stupid that it made me see why some adults don’t like to read YA books.

Ryan was too perfect. He settled for a lot in this book and I wasn’t a fan of that because he was one of the good guys. Yeah, Penny does eventually get her head out of her butt but I spent too long wanting to strangle her for the way that she acted throughout the book. From the way she treated Ryan to the way she judged Missy after getting to know her. She didn’t even try to understand where Missy was coming from and that wasn’t cool. She’s supposed to be this leader and one thing doesn’t go her way so she immediately stands judge and jury over others? Ugh.

I will say that though there were things that bugged me about this book. There were things that I did like. I liked meeting Bruce. I liked Tracy and Diane. I liked Tracy’s reasons for not wanting to get in a relationship. I liked that Tracy called Penny on her crap because we all need a friend like that in our lives and I enjoyed Penny’s family…though the whole Beatles thing with her parents was a bit overwhelming.

All in all, this book didn’t live up to the hype I was building up about it in my head but I think that fans of Eulberg will enjoy it. Younger fans definitely.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5

Reading Order:

This book is available from Point. 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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Review: Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Posted February 28, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Rowena’s review of Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg.

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love?

Macallan and Levi have been friends since Levi transferred to Macallan’s school and Macallan felt bad because he looked so desperate for friends.  So she became his friend.  And it’s a friendship that was put through the wringer.  From cheating other best friends to jealous boyfriends and girlfriends to a declaration of love and a trip to Ireland.  So much is packed into this book and I ate every word up.

I was kind of skeptical going into this book because with a title like this one, I thought things wouldn’t turn out the way that I wanted them to but after reading this, there really was only one way that this book could have ended and I thought Eulberg did a fabulous job with the set up, the build up and the ending.  This book was filled with a whole lot of things that I loved.  I loved the dynamic between Macallan and Levi.  I loved the way that they were with each other, the way that they understood each other (even when they were behaving like complete idiots) and I really liked the way that their story is told throughout the entire book.

The story is told through alternating POV’s (and the way that they marked who’s chapter you were getting was beyond cute, which is something I didn’t notice until Nath brought it up) and then each chapter ends with commentary from both Levi and Macallan.  The cuteness in this story knows no bounds.  It was so sweet, the way that these two bickered with each other.

This was a good book.  It was cute and funny and the characters became close to my heart.  Both Macallan and Levi were outstanding protagonists and their journey was a fabulous read.  Eulberg did a great job with this one and I’m super stoked that I got to read this one.  It was perfect for the mood I was in when I started it.  I’m SO looking forward to more books from Elizabeth Eulberg.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Point.  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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Review: Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg.

Posted June 20, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments


Rowena’s review of Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg.

Main Character: Emme, Ethan, Sophie, Carter
Love Interest: Ethan, Emme (highlight to see)
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

From the fantastic author of The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom & Prejudice comes a story of all the drama and comedy of four friends who grow into themselves at a performing arts high school.

Emme, Sophie, Ethan, and Carter are seniors at a performing arts school, getting ready for their Senior Showcase recital, where the pressure is on to appeal to colleges, dance academies, and professionals in show business. For Sophie, a singer, it’s been great to be friends with Emme, who composes songs for her, and to date Carter, soap opera heartthrob who gets plenty of press coverage. Emme and Ethan have been in a band together through all four years of school, but wonder if they could be more than just friends and bandmates. Carter has been acting since he was a baby, and isn’t sure how to admit that he’d rather paint than perform. The Senior Showcase is going to make or break each of the four, in a funny, touching, spectacular finale that only Elizabeth Eulberg could perform.

What a fun book this turned out to be!

I was a huge fan of the other two books by Eulberg that I read so I knew immediately upon finding out about this book that I had to have it. This is a really fast read (I read it all in one sitting) and another winner for me from Eulberg.

This book follows four students who get accepted to attend a performing arts school. There’s Emme and Sophie who have known each other since they were eight, there’s Ethan who was super shy and then grew into being the lead singer in his band and Carter, the child star who is all grown up and going back to high school to “perfect his craft”, too bad he doesn’t want to act anymore.

As you read this book, you get to know each character and you either love them to death or you hate their freaking guts. Lucky for me, I only hated one characters guts. The rest of them? Adored them.

My favorite character in this book is probably Emme. She’s nice. She’s talented and creative and she’s a good person. She wasn’t boring, she wasn’t plain looking, but she was shy and that was fine. I really liked seeing the way she was with everyone around her, the way that she wasn’t this popular queen bee but a down to earth everyday girl. She was genuine and she was likeable and I enjoyed getting to know her.

Ethan was another character that I enjoyed getting to know. He was so troubled and so intense. I wanted to fix him or at the very least, sing that Cold Play song to him. The way that he loved Emme from afar and tried to become a person who was worthy of her made my heart sigh and really, he was just full of awesome.

Carter was another enjoyable character. It was so good to see him find himself over the course of this book. Finding out what made him happy and getting rid of the toxic people in his life. At first, I thought he was going to be a love interest for Emme but I’m happy with the story arc that they gave him. You really see him come into his own, figure things out for his future and realize that there wasn’t anyone holding him back from going after what he wanted…but him. The steps he took to fix those mistakes had me captivated by him as a person and I just loved him to pieces.

There isn’t much to say about Sophie because she was such a toxic person, inside and out and I was thrilled when Emme finally saw her true colors. Fake people exist in this world and Sophie was one of the very worst users ever. The way that Ethan hated her was pretty much how I hated her and that kinship with Ethan made me love him all the more.

My favorite part of this book was the friendship between Ethan, Emme, Jack and Ben. So tight and so loyal. The way that your friends should always be. They have your back no matter what and that’s exactly how these guys were. They adored Emme, were protective of her and had her back no matter what. Same with Ethan. When he was being an ass, they called him out on it and they loved each other. Not everyone is lucky to have friends as awesome as these guys and it was such a treat to read about their friendship in this book.

This book is about a bunch of kids doing what they do best and trying to build a future for themselves. It wasn’t an easy journey but they each learned from each other and strived to do better each day. I loved the characters in this book, I loved the way this story unfolded and I loved the book as a whole. I definitely recommend this book. It’d make a perfect beach read.

…and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from Point.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Review: Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg.

Posted February 17, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 7 Comments


Main Character: Lizzie Bennett
Love Interest: Will Darcy
Series: None
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

After winter break, the girls at the very prestigious Longbourn Academy become obsessed with the prom. Lizzie Bennet, who attends Longbourn on a scholarship, isn’t interested in designer dresses and expensive shoes, but her best friend, Jane, might be — especially now that Charles Bingley is back from a semester in London.

Lizzie is happy about her friend’s burgeoning romance but less than impressed by Charles’s friend, Will Darcy, who’s snobby and pretentious. Darcy doesn’t seem to like Lizzie either, but she assumes it’s because her family doesn’t have money. Clearly, Will Darcy is a pompous jerk — so why does Lizzie find herself drawn to him anyway?

Will Lizzie’s pride and Will’s prejudice keep them apart? Or are they a prom couple in the making? Whatever the result, Elizabeth Eulberg, author of The Lonely Hearts Club, has concocted a very funny, completely stylish delight for any season — prom or otherwise.

Isabel and Ames were reading this book and talking about how much they adored it so of course, I had to read it myself. They weren’t wrong because I adored this book too. This book was such a wonderful modern re-telling with a twist of Pride and Prejudice.

This book follows Lizzie Bennett as she makes her way back to school at Longburn Academy where she’s prepared herself for another semester of being a scholarship kid. Scholarship kids are like the Glee Club kids on Glee. They get milk shakes, coffee and what not thrown on them and the rich kids just aren’t very nice to them.

Lizzie’s excited to see her best friend at school Jane and her other scholarship kid friend Charlotte. They’ve stuck by her and she appreciates their friendship. In this book, there are differences from the original P&P story but none of them did anything to ruin my enjoyment of the story as a whole. What surprised me is that Lizzie in this book didn’t annoy me nearly as much as Lizzie in the original story did which I was grateful for.

In this book, the story centers around Prom. Prom is the be all and end all of high school life. You’re a nobody if you don’t have a date for Prom and you’re a loser if you don’t go to prom. You have to go to Prom in style and you have to have the right date and so on and so forth. Lizzie isn’t too worried about Prom since she doesn’t plan on attending prom and she’s okay with that. She’s a strong character and her character leaped right off the pages. It was so easy to connect with her because there’s a little bit of Lizzie in all of us as teenagers and I thought it was great.

The main draw for me in this book was Will Darcy. Getting to know Will Darcy all over again was to love the kid. His snobbishness didn’t bother me in the least because Eulberg did a great job of making Darcy interesting. You wanted to know more about Darcy and when Wick comes into the picture, your heart hurts a little because you know the drama is about to go down.

Lizzie and her assumptions sure did make things harder on her but when you put the book down after finishing it, you can’t help but smile because it was such an entertaining way to spend a few hours and to re-acquaint yourself with familiar characters. I enjoyed Lizzie and Will but also the secondary characters as well, Jane, Charles and Charlotte. It was a great YA contemporary romance and I’m eager for more from this author. I can already tell that I’m going to be a great fan of her work and I’m working on getting her other book read. If only my nieces would return it to me. I totally recommend this book to fans of Pride & Prejudice and fans of YA contemporary romance. This book doesn’t disappoint!

To all of my Mom friends out there, I’d give this book a rating of:

There’s some things in here that you probably wouldn’t want your 12 year old to read but I’d say 13 and up will be okay.

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|Book Depository
Buy the e-book: Nook|Kindle
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Review: Airhead by Meg Cabot.

Posted July 13, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments


Main Character: Emerson Watts, Nikki Howard
Series: Airhead Series, Book 1

Em is considerably more interested in playing computer games with her friend Christopher than in befriending the A-list girls who rule her high school. A freak accident mortally injures Em and leaves superstar model Nikki brain dead. After a transplant operation, Em wakes up in Nikki’s body and learns that she must keep her identity a secret and live her life as Nikki. Readers who are willing to swallow the brain transplant idea will find that the rest of the story goes down easily enough; there’s plenty to entertain readers with stars in their eyes as well as those who disdain the pop-culture glamour of Nikki’s life. Besides the juxtaposition of Em’s world with Nikki’s, there are elements of humor and glimmers of compassion for the rich and famous in this first-person story. Toward the novel’s end, “Nikki” enrolls in Em’s old school. Can the girl inside that too-perfect body reconnect with the boy she secretly loves?

Meg Cabot is one of my go to YA authors for fantabulous YA contemporary stories. She writes the kind of books that I know I will enjoy and while this isn’t my favorite Meg Cabot book, I still enjoyed the heck out of it.

This story follows Emerson Watts as a freak accident happens and changes her life and when I say, change her life, I mean…change her freaking life. Before the accident, her name is Em Watts but after the accident? She’s Nikki Howard, A-List Celebrity, Nikki Howard. When Em wakes up after the accident, she finds herself thrown into a world that she knows nothing about and is completely uncomfortable in but because she’s our trusty heroine, she does what she needs to do in order to overcome everything that’s going on. It helps that Nikki Howard is mega rich and with Nikki’s money and Em’s brain, she makes a go of it.

The adventures Em goes through in her new life make for one wonderfully entertaining read. Meg Cabot did a wonderful job making me connect with Em/Nikki. All of her confusion and her joy- I was right there with her. Watching everyone run in and out of her life (from Gabriel, Brandon, Christopher, Justin and what not) had me laughing, gasping and laughing again.

At first, Lulu got on my hot damn nerves with how ditzy she was but she was a good friend to Nikki (even when Nikki didn’t deserve it) and I grew to like her. I’m mighty curious to see what happens between Gabriel and Nikki though my heart is set on Christopher.

Will Nikki tell Christopher the truth? Will she help Christopher with his plot to take down Stark Entertainment? What will happen with Brandon? All of these questions have been plaguing me ever since I finished this book and so I’m anxious to read the other books in this series. I’m telling you, Meg Cabot is a genius at hooking me into her books and this book was no different. This book is filled with Cabot’s trademark humor and fabulous characters so really, you won’t want to miss this one.

Reading Order:

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon

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