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Quick Review: "Bright Young Things" by Anna Godbersen




From Goodreads:  The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: Flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.

Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star....

Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined — and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for...and someone will.

The only person Cordelia can trust is ­Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.


My Thoughts:  I didn't know what to expect from this book but it was a freebie from Barnes and Noble a while back so I decided to check it out.  Unfortunately, I kind of wish I hadn't wasted my time on it.  I think the story had a good premise but was extremely over-simplified and any twists were pretty obvious well before they occurred.  It felt like the author tried to cram a story that should have been longer into 250 pages and the story really suffered from it.

I think Letty had the potential to be an interesting character but she just was very under-developed.  Cordelia and Astrid got on my nerves and I found it annoying how things just magically worked out for Cordelia in her search for her father.  It seemed so unrealistic and contributed to the story being boring.  It's a lot more fun to read about a person's struggle than it is to read about someone who just gets everything they want.  I will admit that I skimmed some pages because I just really didn't care that much about the characters or what was happening to them.

This is the first book in a trilogy and honestly I can't see myself continuing with the next book. I hate to write negative reviews but this book just really didn't do it for me. 2 stars.

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