Review: Can’t Buy Forever

Recap: Odessa is a young girl living in a boarding house run by a widowed aunt. She has lived there for years after her father died and has made a life for herself there and gotten to know the others who live there as well. It’s a house full of miners, and though they’re all older, young Odessa falls for Nicholas. Dessa and Nicholas seem destined to be together, but one of the boys at school wants Dessa for himself. This age-old tale of two men fighting over a beautiful girl starts off reasonably enough but quickly enters dangerous territory, consisting of kidnapping, fighting and abandonment. Dessa is left in despair. Nicholas saves her. The two get married the night of Dessa’s prom.

But somewhere along the way, the truth comes out about Nicholas: he’s not actually just your average man. He’s an immortal gypsy. About halfway to two-thirds of the way into the book, the story takes a sci-fi turn and flees into the depths of a cross-country chase, several lifetimes lived by Nicholas and his family members and those who Dessa has known for most of her life also being connected to Nicholas’s gypsy family in some way.

Analysis: I was on board with the story for the first act. The romance between Nicholas and Dessa was satisfying and lovely. The two needed each other, and I liked it. But the sci-fi/fantasy aspects of the story seemed to come out of left field. It certainly took the book in a different direction, but a weird one, and as the deep details about Nicholas and his family continued to come, the story became more and more confusing. It was hard for me to follow, and by the end I wasn’t entirely sure that Nicholas was even Nicholas anymore. I powered through the book since it was short, but by the end, it lost all the greatness of the first half.

MVP: Dessa. Her character is taken on a journey — albeit a crazy, hard-to-follow, roller coaster of a journey, but a journey nonetheless. She offered the sweetness and innocence that the book needed to try and make the story work.

You can buy Can’t Buy Forever in paperback now for $2.97.

‘Fault In Our Stars’ Author to Publish New Novel This Year

It’s only been two years since John Green’s popular storytelling was made famous by the movie Paper Towns. The Fault In Our Stars came out in theaters the year before. But it’s been almost six (!!!) since his last novel was released. The wait for new John Green material is finally over.

According to Entertainment Weekly, The Fault In Our Stars author is publishing a new book entitled Turtles All The Way Down, set to be released on October 10th, 2017. Like his other novels, Turtles All The Way Down is said to focus on a teenager looking for something more. The novel centers on 16-year-old Aza Holmes, who is battling mental illness and searching for a fugitive billionaire.

Publishers describe the book as a story “about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction and tuatara.”

Considering his last novel was The Fault In Our Stars and went on to become a huge international bestseller, there’s no doubt this book, too, will do well and maybe lead to another YA movie?

Review: Valley of the Dolls

Recap: The scandalous, spiraling-out-of-control lives of three up-and-coming women in New York merge in this 1960’s tale of fame and self-destruction. Anne Welles has just moved to New York in an attempt to escape her small-town life and find love and happiness. Jennifer North has worked her way through Europe and landed in New York looking for nothing but love. Neely O’Hara doesn’t care much for love, but cares every bit about fame, success and her singing and acting career.

The three meet at similar times in their lives. Anne meets a man who finally makes her feel something. Jennifer is working steadily and meeting men here and there. Neely is a young star on the rise. Anne works for an agent and stays involved in the entertainment business of Broadway, movies and eventually television as the other girls continue to focus on performing. After the only man she’s ever loved leaves her, Anne becomes the new commercial face of a makeup campaign, while Jennifer moves to Paris, shooting risque films and Neely becomes a huge, but unreliable and diva-like star.

As the lives of the three women start to spiral out of control, they all turn to pills: sleeping pills, weight-loss pills, any kind of pill to make them feel and look the way they’re pressured to feel and look. The pills — or “dolls” as the girls call them — lead to illness, rehab, depression and anxiety. It’s an ongoing struggle for the girls that doesn’t end even when the novel does.

Analysis: In the beginning, I couldn’t put this book down. Going back and forth between the three girls and trying to determine their character arch was exciting. It felt like an adventure. In the middle section when Jennifer and Neely start their addictions, I started rooting for them to overcome it all. They were the “underdogs” in a book full of sadness. I hoped the best for them as Anne’s love life continued to sour. But the last part of the book was a hard slog. None of the girls overcame anything. In fact, they just repeated their awful cycles or gave up entirely. There was no one and nothing to root for anymore. Their lives were a depressing pile of resentment and loss.

Knowing that Valley of the Dolls was such a huge hit when it came out in 1966 — it was the biggest-selling novel of the year! — I had high expectations. I understand why it was a hit. It was that perfect “trashy” novel and a great summer read if you’re into that kind of thing. But reading it fifty years left made it clear that it was dated and didn’t quite hold up.

MVP: Anne. She’s the least lost soul of the three. Although she became jaded at the end of the novel, she certainly held out the longest and worked the hardest. It seems she just surrounded herself with bad people.

Get Valley of the Dolls in hardcover for $9.99. 

Or get it on your Kindle for $8.51.