Waiting on Wednesday – Week 76

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It's to spotlight on upcoming reads which I'm DYING to get my hands on.

This week's WoW is:

Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg

A hilarious new novel from Elizabeth Eulberg about taking the wall out of the wallflower so she can bloom.

Don't mess with a girl with a Great Personality.

Everybody loves Lexi. She's popular, smart, funny...but she's never been one of those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup).

Lexi's sick of it. She's sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She's sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She's sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she's sick of having all her family's money wasted on a phony pursuit of perfection.

The time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren't going to know what hit them. Because Lexi's going to play the beauty game - and she's in it to win it.

Goodreads ● March 1, 2013

I LOVED Take a Bow, so obviously, I'm quite excited for this one! Time for all of us girls with great personalities to take the front row :) Elizabeth Eulberg is pretty much a genius when it comes to her books– I still need to read Prom & Prejudice– and this one should be no less than amazing!

What are you waiting on?

Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg

Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg

Release Date: April 1, 2012
Publisher: Point
Rated: YA 14+
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon ❘ The Book Depository
Goodreads ◆ Website

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.

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

Waiting on Wednesday – Week 47

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's to spotlight upcoming books which I'm DYING to get my hands on.

This week's WoW is:

Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg

From the fantastic author of The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom & Prejudice comes a story of all the drama and comedy of four friends who grow into themselves at a performing arts high school.Emme, Sophie, Ethan, and Carter are seniors at a performing arts school, getting ready for their Senior Showcase recital, where the pressure is on to appeal to colleges, dance academies, and professionals in show business. For Sophie, a singer, it's been great to be friends with Emme, who composes songs for her, and to date Carter, soap opera heartthrob who gets plenty of press coverage. Emme and Ethan have been in a band together through all four years of school, but wonder if they could be more than just friends and bandmates. Carter has been acting since he was a baby, and isn't sure how to admit that he'd rather paint than perform. The Senior Showcase is going to make or break each of the four, in a funny, touching, spectacular finale that only Elizabeth Eulberg could perform.

Goodreads

Release Date: April 1, 2012

I've heard some amazing things The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom & Prejudice both which, unfortunately, I haven't gotten to read yet. I can't wait for this one though :)

What are you waiting on?