Monday, May 21, 2012

Flirting in Italian by Lauren Henderson Review

Name: Flirting in Italian
Author: Lauren Henderson
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Release Date: June 12th, 2012
Format: E-book ARC
Pre-Order the book on Amazon

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for sending me an ARC copy of this book!!

Four girls. One magical, and possibly dangerous Italian summer. Family mysteries, ancient castles, long hot nights of dancing under the stars . . . and, of course, plenty of gorgeous Italian boys!-Goodreads

My Review:
When I first heard about Flirting in Italian, I knew that this would be right up my alley! It sounded like the perfect contemporary read with gorgeous foreign boys and an awesome setting! Sadly, this book didn't live up to my expectations and I found myself being disappointed in the end.

Overall, the main plot of this book was enjoyable! I liked the whole art history aspect to it (considering that I am studying it now!). I also really liked learning more about the Italian culture and how teenagers live in Italy. The romance in this book definitely is light and fun, and has a little bit of drama but overall is nice to read. The four girls (Violet, Kelly, Kendra and Page) each have their own personalities and are really fun to read about! At times they seemed a little bit cliche, but they are still nice! Violet, the main character, was a really fascinating character to read about! Violet seems pretty relatable to teenager girls out there, but at times I really wanted her to put herself out more-instead of just sitting back in the shadows I wanted her to act.

As I was nearing the end of this book, I was started to get frustrated because I really felt like their wasn't any solutions to the main conflict of the story. It really just seemed like the author kept dragging things out to make the story longer. Their definitely were a few scenes that didn't add anything special to the book. The whole reason why Violet goes to Italy is to try to figure out if she has any connection to a girl that she sees in a painting and looks just like her. I thought this conflict was somewhat unnecessary to the story, and it would have been better if the author focused more on the girls' adventures in Italy. The main issue I have is that the author never resolved this conflict and instead decided to made a second book to this series!

While at times this book definitely was really enjoyable to read, I was very disappointed by the ending. That being said, this book may or may not work for you and I recommend picking this book up from the library this summer and giving it a shot!

My Rating: Three out of Five Stars

7 comments:

  1. :( So sorry to hear it didn't live up to your expectations. I had been really looking forward to this one for a fun summer read. I really appreciate your honesty, thank you. :)

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  2. Great review! I just finished reading this one as well and was really disappointed with it as well. The ending was what infuriated me the most. Some parts of the plot I was really enjoying as well but overall it just didn't save this book for me.

    Traci @ The Reading Geek

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  3. Ugh, dragging the conflict out is never fun, so that definitely sucks! I'm glad you still seem to have enjoyed it though. I'm still not sure if this books is for me or not. Hm! Great review.

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  4. Ah, I hate it when authors drag the story out for no apparent reason!

    =^.^= ComaCalm's Corner =^.^=

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  5. Wow. So sorry that it didn't meet up for you. I wasn't really looking forward to this book, but I was planning on picking it up. I don't think I will now, just because it doesn't seem like I will like it. I hate it when authors don't resolve conflicts. It's a must for me to be able to finish the book.
    Thanks for the review!

    Alyssa Susanna

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  6. I'm sorry to hear that the ending dragged on, but I'm still very excited to read this book! Great review!

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  7. This book looks awesome! I can't wait till it comes out so I can read it. Great review.

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