A review by imawriter23
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
4.0
It's always pleasurable to read Godbersen's books. She has that unique style of writing and story-telling that makes every character, every scenery, every setting and every moment jump out of life. I just love the way she describes people, places and things. It's very imaginative and incredibly vivid. I read The Luxe before but I liked this story better. I guess I was smitten by the "Romeo & Juliet-ish" twist to the plot as well as the predictability of some characters. This is the type of story wherein you couldn't really relate to any of the main characters but you still feel empathy towards them. You can almost feel their emotions surging through as if they were yours. I personally liked the story of friendship between Cordelia and Letty - how these two country bumpkins stepped out of their comfort zone and bravely took on the challenge of living in the big city. They both experienced happiness, success, fame, love and failure but in the end, they still ended up together as they share their agony and heartaches.
Astrid is one delightful character for me. She surprises me the most. Although the last part of the book was sort of "I saw that coming", I think she still has some sort of facade that she's concealing pretty well. Charlie is a bastard but I like him out of all the boys too (although Thom Hale & Luke were the ones who induced girlish squeaks of excitement from me ^^). I just like Charlie's dignity and how protective he is of his family. He may be a player but I think he really loves Astrid. I was a bit annoyed at Letty during about 60% of the book. I just don't like her irritatingly innocent & naive personality. She makes me wanna roll my eyes several times. But I guess she learned her lesson at the end.
The death at the end was quite unexpected although I've been apprehensive of the events that followed afterwards. I kinda saw it coming too. Like deja vu. It didn't ruin my excitement upon reading it though. It was a compelling and fun read. I like the fact that on the surface it seemed to be the success and sob stories of the three girls when i kinda see it as the story of rival families and the desire to grab the upper tier of the society mingled with complicated love affairs, nasty secrets, friendship, broken dreams and promises, and family relationships. It was like a complete set of meal and I couldn't ask for more. ^^
Astrid is one delightful character for me. She surprises me the most. Although the last part of the book was sort of "I saw that coming", I think she still has some sort of facade that she's concealing pretty well. Charlie is a bastard but I like him out of all the boys too (although Thom Hale & Luke were the ones who induced girlish squeaks of excitement from me ^^). I just like Charlie's dignity and how protective he is of his family. He may be a player but I think he really loves Astrid. I was a bit annoyed at Letty during about 60% of the book. I just don't like her irritatingly innocent & naive personality. She makes me wanna roll my eyes several times. But I guess she learned her lesson at the end.
The death at the end was quite unexpected although I've been apprehensive of the events that followed afterwards. I kinda saw it coming too. Like deja vu. It didn't ruin my excitement upon reading it though. It was a compelling and fun read. I like the fact that on the surface it seemed to be the success and sob stories of the three girls when i kinda see it as the story of rival families and the desire to grab the upper tier of the society mingled with complicated love affairs, nasty secrets, friendship, broken dreams and promises, and family relationships. It was like a complete set of meal and I couldn't ask for more. ^^