kate2440's review against another edition
4.0
I had joined Emily's mailing list a while ago now so when there was an email asking if anyone want to review this book I jumped at the chance as I have enjoyed all her books that I have read and this one sounded just as good...
I must say out of all of her book covers this one has to be my favourite. I love the use of colour (which ties in with the story) and I also love the patterns down the side as they really do add something extra to make the book stand out to me.
As soon as I started this book I was addicted to it I just didn't want to stop reading it and when I had to put it down I just kept thinking about what was happening and what was going to happen next. There was times when I was thinking that this was going to be five star rating but there was just a couple of things that made me go for the four star rating. I felt that the romance side of the story wasn't very believable at the beginning as it felt like the love came a bit out of the blue but towards the end I started to see where it was coming from I also didn't feel like there was any real chemistry coming from the both of them it seemed a bit one sided for the most part. I loved that this wasn't just about romance but it was about the celebrity world and as well as illnesses which isn't always portrayed in books. I absolutely adored the ending as it was so sweet and it was a few years later which as you will know from other reviews that's a huge plus for me.
For me I felt like Lizzie was a bit too perfect as she didn't seem to have any faults and she was always thinking of other people before herself and she was so sweet. I really did feel sorry for her as even though she was this famous child star in the past she still found it hard to get anywhere plus I felt like a lot of people walked all over her and she just let them. I really liked Devon at the beginning but there was times when I found him to be a bit of a jerk but in the end we do find out why he acted the way he did so I was able to like him again.
Overall I found this to be a sweet book that was very much an addicting read even if there was things that happened that I didn't like.
I must say out of all of her book covers this one has to be my favourite. I love the use of colour (which ties in with the story) and I also love the patterns down the side as they really do add something extra to make the book stand out to me.
As soon as I started this book I was addicted to it I just didn't want to stop reading it and when I had to put it down I just kept thinking about what was happening and what was going to happen next. There was times when I was thinking that this was going to be five star rating but there was just a couple of things that made me go for the four star rating. I felt that the romance side of the story wasn't very believable at the beginning as it felt like the love came a bit out of the blue but towards the end I started to see where it was coming from I also didn't feel like there was any real chemistry coming from the both of them it seemed a bit one sided for the most part. I loved that this wasn't just about romance but it was about the celebrity world and as well as illnesses which isn't always portrayed in books. I absolutely adored the ending as it was so sweet and it was a few years later which as you will know from other reviews that's a huge plus for me.
For me I felt like Lizzie was a bit too perfect as she didn't seem to have any faults and she was always thinking of other people before herself and she was so sweet. I really did feel sorry for her as even though she was this famous child star in the past she still found it hard to get anywhere plus I felt like a lot of people walked all over her and she just let them. I really liked Devon at the beginning but there was times when I found him to be a bit of a jerk but in the end we do find out why he acted the way he did so I was able to like him again.
Overall I found this to be a sweet book that was very much an addicting read even if there was things that happened that I didn't like.
mauraho's review against another edition
5.0
Originalrezension: The emotional life of books
English review down below!
Meine Meinung:
Bisher habe ich von der Autorin „Nicht mein Märchen“ und „Prinzessin in Not“ gelesen. Beide Bücher haben mir damals wirklich sehr gut gefallen und zählen bis heute zu meinen Lieblingsbüchern. Folglich war die Messlatte für „A Safe Space“ sehr hoch – etwas zu hoch, wie ich gestehen muss, dennoch hat mir das Buch wirklich sehr, sehr gut gefallen. Aber von vorne:
Zunächst ist anzumerken, dass, obwohl das Buch offiziell zu der Reihe „Someone Else's Fairytale“ als 2,75. Teil gehört, kann man es auch, ohne dass man die vorherigen Bände gelesen zu haben, lesen. Denn die Story hat an sich nichts – oder nur ganz, ganz wenig – mit Teil 1 und 2 der Reihe zu tun.
Der Schreibstil der Autorin lässt sich sehr flüssig und leicht lesen. Er ist der Geschichte angepasst, nicht zu abgehoben, sondern relativ schlicht gehalten. Eben wie bei den meisten Contemporary Büchern. Deshalb übrigens auch gut zu lesen für jemanden, der vorher nur sehr wenig Englisch gelesen hat.
Die Protagonistin Lizzie Warner ist mir auf Anhieb sympathisch gewesen. Obwohl sie ein Teenie-Star ist bzw. war, ist sie nicht abgehoben (im Gegensatz zu derjenigen, an die sie mich immer wieder erinnert hat: Miley Cyrus). Sie engagiert sich für ihre Fans, die in Notlagen geraten sind (z.B. an Krebs erkranken). Manchmal ist dies jedoch etwas zu viel und unrealistisch geworden, da Lizzie in der Beziehung einfach zu perfekt und zu wenig wie ein Superstar oder auch nur ein Mensch ist. Mal im Ernst, welcher 12-jährige Teenie-Star ist denn fähig, eine Aktion zu starten, bei der Knochenmarkspender gesucht werden? Abgesehen davon hat sie wie jeder Mensch auch mit Problemen zu kämpfen.
Denn ihre Karriere geht gerade mehr oder weniger den Bach herunter. Sie muss Dinge tun, die sie eigentlich nicht machen will. Sie fällt hin, richtet sich wieder auf und fällt wieder. Ich finde es wirklich gut, dass das Showbusiness nicht als Glitzer und Glamour Welt dargestellt wird, sondern als hartes Geschäft, in dem man kämpfen muss, um an der Spitze zu bleiben. Was ich jedoch etwas seltsam finde, ist, dass Lizzie, obwohl sie ja eigentlich richtig berühmt ist, nur selten bzw. eigentlich nie in dem Buch von Fans auf irgendeine Art und Weise belagert wird. Ab und an erkennt sie dann doch mal jemand, der ist meist aber schon so alt, dass er nur nach einem Autogramm für seine Tochter fragt.
Schön sind hingegen die sich langsam entwickelnden Beziehungen (nicht nur die Liebesgeschichte!). So zum Beispiel bei ihrem Co-Star. Ihre Beziehung wandelt sich im Buch auch, auf eine ganz langsame und nicht übertriebene Art und Weise.
Ein Problem hatte ich hingegen mit der Länge der Szenen, die oft zu kurz sind und zu abrupt enden. So fühlt man sich gerade einmal in die neue Situation hinein und dann – wie aus dem Nichts – ist sie schon wieder vorbei. Das stört teilweise sehr im Lesefluss, da das Ganze dann ziemlich abgehackt wirkt.
Auch das Ende kommt zu plötzlich und es passiert dann auch einfach zu viel, wofür die Autorin sich besser noch die ein oder andere Seite mehr Zeit genommen hätte. (Das sage ich jetzt nicht nur, weil ich gerne mehr von dem Buch gehabt hätte.) Es kommt mir sehr unrealistisch und gekünstelt vor, so wie es endet. Gefühlt erschlug mich auch die Handlung. Denn was am Ende passiert, ist zwar nur logisch und konsequent, dennoch kommt es einfach viel zu abrupt.
Mein Fazit:
Abschließend lässt sich sagen, dass ich „A Safe Space“ wirklich nur empfehlen kann. Auch wenn es nicht vollkommen perfekt ist, fühlt man sich vollkommen wohl beim Lesen und fiebert mit der Protagonistin mit. Ich werde die Reihe definitiv weiter verfolgen, denn die Autorin E.M. Tippetts schreibt meiner Meinung nach wirklich ausnahmslos großartige Contemporary Bücher!
English Review:
I've read from E.M. Tippetts “Someone Else's Fairytale” and “Nobody's Damsel” before and I really loved those two books – or rather still love them. So I had really high expectations for “A Safe Space”. They weren't completely fulfilled, nonetheless the book is still amazing. But from the beginning:
Even though the book is the 2.75 part of the “Someone Else's Fairytale” series there is actually no real connection to those two books before.
E.M. Tippetts' writing stile is pretty good. It's fast paced and it suits perfectly to the story.
The protagonist Lizzie is likeable. Yes, she is a teen star, but she is still not divorced from the reality. She knows what's happening around her and wants to help – for example – children with cancers. But sometimes especially this is a bit unrealistic, because Lizzie is at some moments just too perfect.
Nonetheless I think it's really good, that she is in other parts of her life not so perfect. She has to struggle with problems like everyone else. Her career is not as good as it was once and her show doesn’t get the ratings it needs. The author shows also a quite realistic picture of the showbiz, not the glittery one for little children.
Very nice is also the relationships between the characters (and I do not only mean the love interest). For example Lizzie's co-star. He changes his behavior quite slowly in the book and also not completely, why it's really reasonable.
Unfortunately there were also two things I didn't enjoy that much.
At first the pretty short – actually too short – scenes. Often they ended so abruptly, that you didn't even realize at first that they were over. And sometimes they are so short that you can not even get into the scenes.
The second aspect is the ending. It was just too much at once. A few more pages would have been really good. Even though everything that happened was reasonable, it came just too fast to be realistic.
All in all I just can say: Read this book and read this series! It makes so much fun reading them. They are so well written that I can truthfully say E.M. Tippetts is one of my favourite contemporary authors! Of course not everything in her books is perfect, but that would just be boring!
English review down below!
Meine Meinung:
Bisher habe ich von der Autorin „Nicht mein Märchen“ und „Prinzessin in Not“ gelesen. Beide Bücher haben mir damals wirklich sehr gut gefallen und zählen bis heute zu meinen Lieblingsbüchern. Folglich war die Messlatte für „A Safe Space“ sehr hoch – etwas zu hoch, wie ich gestehen muss, dennoch hat mir das Buch wirklich sehr, sehr gut gefallen. Aber von vorne:
Zunächst ist anzumerken, dass, obwohl das Buch offiziell zu der Reihe „Someone Else's Fairytale“ als 2,75. Teil gehört, kann man es auch, ohne dass man die vorherigen Bände gelesen zu haben, lesen. Denn die Story hat an sich nichts – oder nur ganz, ganz wenig – mit Teil 1 und 2 der Reihe zu tun.
Der Schreibstil der Autorin lässt sich sehr flüssig und leicht lesen. Er ist der Geschichte angepasst, nicht zu abgehoben, sondern relativ schlicht gehalten. Eben wie bei den meisten Contemporary Büchern. Deshalb übrigens auch gut zu lesen für jemanden, der vorher nur sehr wenig Englisch gelesen hat.
Die Protagonistin Lizzie Warner ist mir auf Anhieb sympathisch gewesen. Obwohl sie ein Teenie-Star ist bzw. war, ist sie nicht abgehoben (im Gegensatz zu derjenigen, an die sie mich immer wieder erinnert hat: Miley Cyrus). Sie engagiert sich für ihre Fans, die in Notlagen geraten sind (z.B. an Krebs erkranken). Manchmal ist dies jedoch etwas zu viel und unrealistisch geworden, da Lizzie in der Beziehung einfach zu perfekt und zu wenig wie ein Superstar oder auch nur ein Mensch ist. Mal im Ernst, welcher 12-jährige Teenie-Star ist denn fähig, eine Aktion zu starten, bei der Knochenmarkspender gesucht werden? Abgesehen davon hat sie wie jeder Mensch auch mit Problemen zu kämpfen.
Denn ihre Karriere geht gerade mehr oder weniger den Bach herunter. Sie muss Dinge tun, die sie eigentlich nicht machen will. Sie fällt hin, richtet sich wieder auf und fällt wieder. Ich finde es wirklich gut, dass das Showbusiness nicht als Glitzer und Glamour Welt dargestellt wird, sondern als hartes Geschäft, in dem man kämpfen muss, um an der Spitze zu bleiben. Was ich jedoch etwas seltsam finde, ist, dass Lizzie, obwohl sie ja eigentlich richtig berühmt ist, nur selten bzw. eigentlich nie in dem Buch von Fans auf irgendeine Art und Weise belagert wird. Ab und an erkennt sie dann doch mal jemand, der ist meist aber schon so alt, dass er nur nach einem Autogramm für seine Tochter fragt.
Schön sind hingegen die sich langsam entwickelnden Beziehungen (nicht nur die Liebesgeschichte!). So zum Beispiel bei ihrem Co-Star. Ihre Beziehung wandelt sich im Buch auch, auf eine ganz langsame und nicht übertriebene Art und Weise.
Ein Problem hatte ich hingegen mit der Länge der Szenen, die oft zu kurz sind und zu abrupt enden. So fühlt man sich gerade einmal in die neue Situation hinein und dann – wie aus dem Nichts – ist sie schon wieder vorbei. Das stört teilweise sehr im Lesefluss, da das Ganze dann ziemlich abgehackt wirkt.
Auch das Ende kommt zu plötzlich und es passiert dann auch einfach zu viel, wofür die Autorin sich besser noch die ein oder andere Seite mehr Zeit genommen hätte. (Das sage ich jetzt nicht nur, weil ich gerne mehr von dem Buch gehabt hätte.) Es kommt mir sehr unrealistisch und gekünstelt vor, so wie es endet. Gefühlt erschlug mich auch die Handlung. Denn was am Ende passiert, ist zwar nur logisch und konsequent, dennoch kommt es einfach viel zu abrupt.
Mein Fazit:
Abschließend lässt sich sagen, dass ich „A Safe Space“ wirklich nur empfehlen kann. Auch wenn es nicht vollkommen perfekt ist, fühlt man sich vollkommen wohl beim Lesen und fiebert mit der Protagonistin mit. Ich werde die Reihe definitiv weiter verfolgen, denn die Autorin E.M. Tippetts schreibt meiner Meinung nach wirklich ausnahmslos großartige Contemporary Bücher!
English Review:
I've read from E.M. Tippetts “Someone Else's Fairytale” and “Nobody's Damsel” before and I really loved those two books – or rather still love them. So I had really high expectations for “A Safe Space”. They weren't completely fulfilled, nonetheless the book is still amazing. But from the beginning:
Even though the book is the 2.75 part of the “Someone Else's Fairytale” series there is actually no real connection to those two books before.
E.M. Tippetts' writing stile is pretty good. It's fast paced and it suits perfectly to the story.
The protagonist Lizzie is likeable. Yes, she is a teen star, but she is still not divorced from the reality. She knows what's happening around her and wants to help – for example – children with cancers. But sometimes especially this is a bit unrealistic, because Lizzie is at some moments just too perfect.
Nonetheless I think it's really good, that she is in other parts of her life not so perfect. She has to struggle with problems like everyone else. Her career is not as good as it was once and her show doesn’t get the ratings it needs. The author shows also a quite realistic picture of the showbiz, not the glittery one for little children.
Very nice is also the relationships between the characters (and I do not only mean the love interest). For example Lizzie's co-star. He changes his behavior quite slowly in the book and also not completely, why it's really reasonable.
Unfortunately there were also two things I didn't enjoy that much.
At first the pretty short – actually too short – scenes. Often they ended so abruptly, that you didn't even realize at first that they were over. And sometimes they are so short that you can not even get into the scenes.
The second aspect is the ending. It was just too much at once. A few more pages would have been really good. Even though everything that happened was reasonable, it came just too fast to be realistic.
All in all I just can say: Read this book and read this series! It makes so much fun reading them. They are so well written that I can truthfully say E.M. Tippetts is one of my favourite contemporary authors! Of course not everything in her books is perfect, but that would just be boring!
novellybritt's review against another edition
4.0
I requested this book on NetGalley and was lucky and got accepted. Having never read any of Tippett's previous books, I was worried that I wouldn't be caught up on the character's lives before I started reading. Luckily, you don't need to read the previous books to be able to keep up with this.
You have Lizzie Warner, former Nickelodeon child star who is trying to make her mark as a serious actress and singer. She has two best friends, Kyra and Zach, and an estranged mother who lives in Australia.Then we have Devon, Lizzie and Kyra's personal trainer, who is kind of a jerk, but you see slowly has a soft side. Lizzie starts to have feelings for Devon, and their relationship is so flip-flopped through out this book. Lizzie lives for charity work with her sick fans and is constantly trying to seek help and treatment for the patients. A major plot twist forms and you'll be constantly back and forth with romance, friendship and loyalty.
I did like this book and I loved the characters. Tippett's really put thought into the plot and you can tell that there was a reason for everything written. As I said previously, this was my first
book by Tippetts but it definitely won't be my last.
darlingqod's review against another edition
4.0
"You do not need to have read any of these books before A Safe Space. Each book has a standalone story in it, so they can be read in any order."
Upon requesting this title, I had no idea that this was a part of a series. A spinoff, to be exact. And although they had said that it could be read separately, even if you haven't read any other novel in the series, I still feel like I'm missing something.
Anyway, I think it's safe to say that I liked this novel more than I thought I would. I plunged into this without so much of anything. I just pointed my finger on a galley I am yet to read and started without anything else.
I thought it started off a little confusing--probably because it's part of a series I hadn't known of until now (shame on me)--well, except for the fact that Lizzie has a crush on her friend's gym instructor. It was as if we've just been thrown into the world and left to comprehend with however that world works. Lizzie, the main character, is an actress, which is something we all can't relate to, so I suppose it's understandable, but I learned get the hang of it as the story goes on.
“If attraction were a logical process life would be so much easier, but it isn’t. At all.”
I had a sort of love-hate relationship with the novel? I thought the pacing was slow and that sometimes you literally have to wait for something to happen, on the other hand, the chapters are kept short and interesting, so you get to guess what's to happen next and flip the pages until you're done.
This novel is funny. More than twice or thrice, I would find myself stifling a laugh because of something from this novel. Tippetts' writing is (for the lack of better word) smooth and easy to read. The author uses simple, everyday words, but she finds a way to weave them together to keep you entertained and not once bored with the novel.
I wasn't too fond of the romance, though. I found it rather... slow and abrupt--both at the same time. I'm obviously not making any sense here, but I'll try my best to explain my point. I thought Lizzie was too desperate and Devon was too... stupid? I mean, I liked them, at the beginning. But things went downhill when the novel started to focus on the romance itself. I found it quite hard to read and very frustrating at times that I sometimes wanted to hurl it out the door or something. But it managed to work its way back into my liking during the last chapters--not completely, but enough for me to give it four stars.
A Safe Place is a funny, relaxing, and interesting read. It's written in absolute perfection that would keep you wanting for more--a novel that would make you want to read it again right after you finish.
Upon requesting this title, I had no idea that this was a part of a series. A spinoff, to be exact. And although they had said that it could be read separately, even if you haven't read any other novel in the series, I still feel like I'm missing something.
Anyway, I think it's safe to say that I liked this novel more than I thought I would. I plunged into this without so much of anything. I just pointed my finger on a galley I am yet to read and started without anything else.
I thought it started off a little confusing--probably because it's part of a series I hadn't known of until now (shame on me)--well, except for the fact that Lizzie has a crush on her friend's gym instructor. It was as if we've just been thrown into the world and left to comprehend with however that world works. Lizzie, the main character, is an actress, which is something we all can't relate to, so I suppose it's understandable, but I learned get the hang of it as the story goes on.
“If attraction were a logical process life would be so much easier, but it isn’t. At all.”
I had a sort of love-hate relationship with the novel? I thought the pacing was slow and that sometimes you literally have to wait for something to happen, on the other hand, the chapters are kept short and interesting, so you get to guess what's to happen next and flip the pages until you're done.
This novel is funny. More than twice or thrice, I would find myself stifling a laugh because of something from this novel. Tippetts' writing is (for the lack of better word) smooth and easy to read. The author uses simple, everyday words, but she finds a way to weave them together to keep you entertained and not once bored with the novel.
I wasn't too fond of the romance, though. I found it rather... slow and abrupt--both at the same time. I'm obviously not making any sense here, but I'll try my best to explain my point. I thought Lizzie was too desperate and Devon was too... stupid? I mean, I liked them, at the beginning. But things went downhill when the novel started to focus on the romance itself. I found it quite hard to read and very frustrating at times that I sometimes wanted to hurl it out the door or something. But it managed to work its way back into my liking during the last chapters--not completely, but enough for me to give it four stars.
A Safe Place is a funny, relaxing, and interesting read. It's written in absolute perfection that would keep you wanting for more--a novel that would make you want to read it again right after you finish.
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