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Friday, January 3, 2014

Meet Stella

I can't tell you how excited I am to be writing and posting my first full review! I have been debating howsis of the book within those reviews. I hate spoilers, so I never want to give to much away, and if your interested in the book it's simple enough for you to look it up on Amazon or Goodreads yourself. So I am decided to write my own synopsis.

                     Stella by Helen Eve
Reading Level: 12 and Up
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: March 25, 2014
Length: 336 pages




Synopsis:
Helen Eve's debut novel Stella follows both Stella, the head of the most prestigious clique in the school "The Stars" and the new girl at Temperly, Caitlin.
Caitlin moves to England as the result of her parents divorce. The mousey over achiever is being sent to Temperly as a way to change her introverted ways. A plan thought up by her father that takes her away from the little brother she adores and her mother in America. It's a plan she hates and she is sure will never work. Then she sees Stella.
Stella seems to be everything Caitlin is not. When she walks in to the room everyone takes notice. Petite and gorgeous Stella is like a box jellyfish, beautiful but if you get to close she is deadly.
Caitlin rules her Stars with an iron fist. She controls who they can talk to, and who they can date, and when one of her Stars makes a major faux paux she is kicked out of the elite clique and suddenly Caitlin feels something she never thought she would feel. She wants to be one of them. She would do anything just to be close to Stella.
Once on the inside Caitlin realizes that being a Star comes with the price of her freedom and she decides it's time for a change at the school. These cliques make everyone miserable, and so Caitlin campaigns against Stella to become Head Girl. An election she can only win if she walks the fine line of being just like Stella and being herself, the smart girl who doesn't believe in oppressive rule. But as her popularity rises will she be consumed by it?

Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed Stella. In the vein of The Heathers and Mean Girls Stella shows the reader how we tend to idolize and bow down to the mean girls in our lives and how easily it is to become just like them. It would have been simple to write a novel where Stella was cast as a villain and Caitlin the hero we root for until the very end but Helen Eve does a wonderful job of creating three dimensional characters that reflect the real people we meet everyday. And if we are being honest, sometimes we don't like them very much. Sometimes we don't like them at all.
I think anyone who has gone to High School has met these girls. You yourself may be one. What Helen Eve does with Stella is explore why this phenomenon exists and keeps repeating itself. She holds a mirror up to the reader and allows one to look at themselves and realize their role in this culture. But the most compelling part of Stella to me was that Helen Eve showed us that the girl we idolize may not really be perfect. She may be fragile and broken and that prickly perfect exterior is sometimes just a mask. And that nice girl you all love? Well she might be just as corruptible as all the rest.

My Rating ***1/2 out of *****

 DISCLAIMER: I WAS GIVEN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW
 
   
      Stella: A Novel    
 
   
So because I really enjoyed this novel and I decided that I would do a GIVEAWAY! That's right one person will be lucky enough to receive a copy of Stella by Helen Eve to add to their bookshelf.

I promise this wont happen all the time because I love my international readers just as much as my national ones but money is extremely tight for me right now so for this giveaway I have to limit entries to those living within the United States. I'm Sorry! I promise I will make it up to you.

(I'm having a lot of trouble posting the rafflecopter so you will find it under Stella giveaway.)

Wishing you all the best on this beautiful Friday! And good luck to everyone!

2 comments:

  1. I was glad to have received a copy. It isn't my usual choice and I really enjoyed it. If you don't win I hope you check it out in March!

    ReplyDelete