“The world was hers for the reading.” — Betty Smith
Rating: 8/10"I keep my voice light, hoping that if I fake confidence, I'll make confidence, like my mom always tells me to." "Nicole sees the trip as one giant opportunity for premature death." "In their identically worn-in denim miniskirts and candy-colored tissue tanks, they look like Tweedle Mean and Tweedle Meaner." "I am the kind of girl who always seems to be working ten times as hard as everyone else for about 0.06 percent of the credit." "Over the years, I've learned that the best way to avoid panic is to make a plan." "I'm the kind of girl that always missed a spot and winds up with some kind of wonky burn." "When we performed last night, we sounded like a bag of cats in a dryer." | I loved Lauren Morrill's first two books, so I was really looking forward to this one. Also she lives in Georgia, so automatic fave. But the story was slightly underwhelming. Don't get me wrong! I enjoyed reading it, but there wasn't really anything special about it. Although there were some nice twists and turns. You start out thinking it's going to be Liza and Lenny. But I saw Russ coming from almost the very beginning. Although I think that's just because I've read way too many of these types of stories. I saw the cues, but I don't think it was overly obvious. Overall, the story was cute. And ti was definitely unique. How many other books can you think of that follow a marching band on a cruise ship? I can't think of any! Also the fact that Liza was not a stereotypical band geek was a great aspect. I expected her to be introverted, kind of nerdy and awkward. But she wasn't at all. I liked that she wasn't afraid to get up and enter a hula hoop contest or sing karaoke at the top of her lungs. However, I was kind of confused as to why Russ liked her. How long had he liked her? Did he break up with Demi partly because of it? Did Demi know he liked Liza? Why Liza? She's a drum major and he's the star on the football team. It didn't make a whole lot of sense unless he started to fall for her on the trip, but he didn't because he wrote he liked her on the slip of paper near the very beginning. So there was some parts like that that didn't exactly connect for me. But I did enjoy reading it. Lenny was a jerk and I'm kind of glad, because I was pulling for Russ and his clumsy but hard working spirit. Also Nicole's character was hilarious. She goes from small, timid flautist to strong lead after just one talking to from Liza. Quite the transformation, I'd say. "'Do I need to slap you?' And I actually have to think about my answer." "It's like a full-body high-five." "'Hit the deck!' Kevin calls, taking far too much glee in the failure of teenagers." "Where I'll have to wear plaid and hate my life." "Maybe there is no solution. Maybe that's the solution." "If there's one thing I've learned from Destiny, it's that you never know what's going to happen next...and it just might change your life." |