Release Date: April 1, 2012
Publisher: Point
Rated: YA 14+
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon ❘ The Book Depository
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Chasing fame. Chasing love. Chasing a future.
Emme has long lived in her best friend Sophie's shadow. She writes songs, and Sophie sings them. It's always been like this, and feels like it always will be.
Sophie will stop at nothing to be a star. Even if it means using her best friend and picking up a trophy boyfriend, Carter.
Carter is a victim of a particular Hollywood curse: He's a former child star. Now all he wants is a normal life. But being normal is about as hard for him as being famous.
Ethan has his own issues – a darkness in his head that he just can't shake. He's managed to sabotage every relationship he's ever been in. Emme's the only girl he's ever really respected... but he's not sure what to do about that.
Emme, Sophie, Carter, and Ethan are all students at a performing arts school, where talent is the norm and fame is the goal. But sometimes, being in the spotlight isn't as important as the people you're sharing it with – as the four of them are going to find out in Elizabeth Eulberg's excellent new novel, which is about the auditions life puts us through every day, both big and small.
Emme has long lived in her best friend Sophie's shadow. She writes songs, and Sophie sings them. It's always been like this, and feels like it always will be.
Sophie will stop at nothing to be a star. Even if it means using her best friend and picking up a trophy boyfriend, Carter.
Carter is a victim of a particular Hollywood curse: He's a former child star. Now all he wants is a normal life. But being normal is about as hard for him as being famous.
Ethan has his own issues – a darkness in his head that he just can't shake. He's managed to sabotage every relationship he's ever been in. Emme's the only girl he's ever really respected... but he's not sure what to do about that.
Emme, Sophie, Carter, and Ethan are all students at a performing arts school, where talent is the norm and fame is the goal. But sometimes, being in the spotlight isn't as important as the people you're sharing it with – as the four of them are going to find out in Elizabeth Eulberg's excellent new novel, which is about the auditions life puts us through every day, both big and small.
I've heard plenty of brilliant things about The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom & Prejudice, and I'm glad to say Elizabeth Eulberg did no less with Take a Bow. I, being a theatre student, found this particularly enticing– I just couldn't stop! I love the drama (oh, the drama!), the music, the romance, the heartbreaks. All of it had me flipping pages like mad, desperately wanting to read the next chapter of each character's perspective, frustrated when it didn't continue with the same character, and smiling away with the sweetness of this book.
The novel shifts around the four perspectives of Emme, Sophie, Carter and Ethan. Is there a main character? Yes, Emme is, but this doesn't mean the center of attention is always on her. I found it enjoyable to know more about each character in turn. However, there was one problem: I found it quite hard to connect to any of them, because the POV's change every chapter and even though it's the same story, you can kind of feel detached from them at times.
Emme was an okay character, I mean I don't think it's her fault for being the one stepped on all the time, but she should at least listen to her friends (Jack and Ben are both HILARIOUS supporting characters) when they tell her that she's being used. I mean, seriously? It was pretty obvious. But of course, being Sophie's friend and all, it might have blinded Emme a little bit. Speaking of which...
Sophie is one of those characters I love to hate. She reminds me of the Queen Bees at my school– they're both totally fun to hate and make fun of. But of course, there are times when my blood boiled. The very mention of her name made me loathe her even more. I think her character was brilliantly developed though. She really stood out of the four characters and I feel as if Sophie should have had her own story as well.
Carter was such a sweetheart, but I found that I couldn't connect to him at all! I don't really remember him, other than his determination to get out of Hollywood, so I really think he's one character that Eulberg could have pushed forward a bit. Not much variation in his story, I'm afraid.
AND...Ethan. *Sigh* my favorite part of the review: fangirling! I honestly thought his story on the blurb sounded more serious than his character in the book. I like how he was kind of the one who saw everything going on in the plot. He knew where each character was, what role they played and he, to me, felt like the "narrator" for most of the book. And he's so talented: he can sing! I want him so badly now.
I love the whole idea of the Arts school, it's usually very overdone or not done at all, and I'm glad that Take a Bow presents a more realistic situation. I mean, we've all had or known that one person who tries to rain on our parades, and that other person who tries to make us stand up to them right? I could connect with the plot instantly and it was just like reading a memory at times.
Take a Bow is definitely one of the best contemporaries of 2012 that I've read so far. It's got everything you'd want in a book: guys, music, drama, heartbreak, romance, and all that sweet gushy stuff that you won't admit that you like but secretly do. A very heartwarming and entertaining book, I definitely cannot wait to get my paws on another one of Elizabeth Eulberg's novels.
**Thank you so much to Amanda from Scholastic for sending me Take a Bow for review!**
If you like this, try...
- Being Friends with Boys by Terra Elan McVoy ◆ Goodreads
- Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe by Shelley Coriell ◆ Goodreads
- Just Flirt by Laura Bowers ◆ Goodreads
Glad to hear from a real-life theater student about this book! I love the setting of an arts school-I almost always enjoy those kinds of stories.
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