Rowena’s review of The Darlings in Love by Melissa Kantor.

Main Character: Jane, Natalya, Victoria
Love Interest: Simon, Colin, Jack
Series: The Darlings, Book 2
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

The Darlings have just begun their second semester of ninth grade, and love is in the air.

Victoria: The sweetheart Jack: The irresistible songwriter…but is he writing off Victoria?

Natalya: The overachiever Colin: The perfect match, if only the game were less complicated

Jane: The drama queen Simon: The Greek god… of mixed signals

In the face of both joy and heartbreak, the Darlings know that they’ll always have each other. Boys come and go, but the Darlings are still forever.

What a fun book this turned out to be.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first book in this series but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book anyway. Kantor does a fabulous job of writing this story so that it seems like a standalone, even though it isn’t. In this book, we’re front and center as Jane, Victoria and Natalya go through obstacles surrounding the boys in their lives. Jane meets a new boy named Simon who sweeps her off her feet and seems to be too good to be true. Victoria and Jack are still going strong but they don’t have much in common and it’s becoming a problem that everyone is seeing except Jack. Natalya still likes Colin, the boy that she ditched and she’s regretting her decision to ditch him for his sister (the popular girl) and when Colin invites her to play Chess again, things start to get pretty complicated, pretty fast.

This book was cute. I really enjoyed getting to know all three of the Darlings and be a part of their love lives. Each girl is going through different things and I was right there with each of them. I can’t say that I had a favorite storyline in this book because I enjoyed all three storylines. I liked all three boys even when I wasn’t really sure where they loyalty was.

Victoria and Jack were going through a rough patch that isn’t really anything with couples their age but I still enjoyed getting to know both Jack and Victoria. I loved that Victoria had strict parents even though we didn’t get to see much of them because so many kids have strict parents these days and it made Victoria’s story come alive that much more for me because I know exactly how she feels. I was right there with her when I was in high school, strict parents and at a complete loss as to how to hang out with my boyfriend outside of lunch period at school. The way that her and Jack fought and then talked things out was too cute for words.

Natalya and Colin were a cute couple too. They’re not together or anything but their story hurt my heart. After Natalya ditched Colin in the first book (which is where I’m assuming it happened but I don’t know for sure since I didn’t read that book), the two of them didn’t really talk much. Natalya was all bummed about losing him because she really liked him but thought that it was a lost cause because that ship has sailed and she blew her chance. When he comes sprawling back into her life, she’s all excited until she’s not anymore and all of the drama behind this one had me connecting with Natalya because who hasn’t had their heart broken before? Too cute, these two were. I loved their texts back and forth and their chess game.

Last up is Jane. Jane is a drama student who’s being pursued by Mark, a guy that she is sold on being a poser. He said that he was a great actor and what not and then doesn’t even audition for the part. He comes back in this book and wants to direct so he asks Jane to act in a scene that he’s directing for school and only after she meets her hot co-star does Jane accept. Simon (the hottie co-star) and Jane were cute but for me, I was more of a fan of Mark. He just seemed more sincere than Simon was and even though I liked Simon, my heart hurt for Jane because it couldn’t have been easy for her to deal with all of that drama and then not talk about it since everyone else was going through their own personal drama’s.

Overall, this book was a great treat for me to read. It’s got a little bit of everything for lovers of contemporary YA. It’s cute and cuddly and I really enjoyed it. I definitely recommend it.

..and that’s your scoop!