Sunday, April 27, 2014

Review: The Romeo Club - Rebekah L. Purdy

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The Romeo Club
Rebekah L. Purdy
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Predictable
On Goodreads

When I first got a copy of The Romeo Club for review, I was really excited to read it. The book sounded very promising. And while it wasn't a bad book, it fell short of what I hoped it would be.

The Romeo Club centers around Delyla, who is pretty and popular and has been approached by her brother and his friends -- who she calls the Nerd Herd -- and asked to make them attractive and appealing to the girls they are trying to impress in exchange for giving her enough money to buy her dream prom dress.

One of the things I liked about the book was the dialogue between Delyla and the Nerd Herd. It was well written and free-flowing and in general just good banter. Her dynamic with the other characters was pretty well done and I liked that aspect of the story.

I didn't like Delyla's character, however. Later on in the book, she becomes bearable but in the beginning I just find her annoying and whiny. For one, she goes to great lengths not to tell her boyfriend about what she's up to. It's not like planning to give your brother some advice about how to dress and talk to girls is a bad thing. I get that her personality is very socially-conscious and that she wouldn't want to be seen in public with that group of guys, but she really didn't have to lie to her boyfriend as much as she did. I just found Delyla to be shallow and annoying, especially the first half of the book, and it was really hard getting through her inner monologue. Also, her plans for sabotage? I thought she was being really selfish and that it should not have worked out as well for her as it did.

Also, the storyline with Trey was so predictable. I could literally tell from the first mention of him how the story was going to play out. In general, the plot was pretty predictable and it was so easy to know exactly where this book would go. Which isn't a totally bad thing, because sometimes you want a cute, light read where there aren't very many surprises. And Rebekah L. Purdy isn't a bad writer, so it was easy to get through and pretty well-written (I mean, I didn't much like Delyla's style of narration, but that's just because of her character). I just wondered if I should bother wading through Delyla's annoying behavior just to read the ending I knew would happen (although I kind of wished it wouldn't). There was one plot aspect that I didn't see coming, and that was the neighbor's dog subplot. And it's not that I didn't see it coming in that it surprised me. It's just that there was literally no point to it, so I didn't have a prediction for where it would end up leading to. It didn't do much to further the story and while it provided a few comical scenes, I think it was slightly confusing and not necessary. Maybe if she cut it down to one or two scenes it wouldn't seem like it was intended to be important and then just cut out.

Okay, so I know I just talked about how I didn't like the main character and how I thought the plot wasn't very new and refreshing, which is why I didn't totally like it, but that being said, it isn't a terrible book. It's very easy and quick to get through so if you're ever bored and looking for a cliche love story, it's cute and pretty satisfying in that regard.

- Noor

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