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Liked It “Great end to the series. Kept up with the plot and threw in some great twists!” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Diva was just an ok read for me. I was happy just to finish it. There were no highs or lows, just a story with an average plot. I will say what/who held my interest was Lorraine. She was the life of the story. She was the glue that held it all together. I trudged through this book to see what she...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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““The Flappers” series is set during Prohibition in the 1920′s, and follows the lives of rich cousins Gloria Carmody, Clara Knowles, and their friend Lorraine Dyer who love partying, drinking forbidden liquor, and living the life of Flapper Girls. Gloria has just been released from jail, and is working as an undercover detective for the FBI trying to find some dirt on Forrest, a rich millionaire so she can really be freed.
Alma Ramos-McDermott wrote this review Sunday, December 23, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Read the rest of the review on my blog: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/diva-jillian-larkin/”
“3.5”
Christine wrote this review Friday, November 16, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Great end to the series. Kept up with the plot and threw in some great twists!”
Brady wrote this review Saturday, July 21, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Diva by Jillian Larkin
RaeLynnFry wrote this review Friday, July 13, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
YA Historical Fiction
Rating: PG
Coffee Beans: 4 of 5 stars
Spoilers: Nope
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free via the publisher in exchange for this honest review.
Publisher’s Summary:
Parties, bad boys, speakeasies—life in Manhattan has become a woozy blur for Clara Knowles. If Marcus Eastman truly loved her, how could he have fallen for another girl so quickly? Their romance mustn't have been as magical as Clara thought. And if she has to be unhappy, she's going to drag everyone else down to the depths of despair right along with her.
Being a Barnard girl is the stuff of Lorraine Dyer's dreams. Finding out that Marcus is marrying a gold digger who may or may not be named Anastasia? A nightmare. The old Lorraine would have sat by and let the chips fall where they may, but she's grown up a lot these past few months. She can't bear to see Marcus lose a chance for true love. But will anyone listen to her?
Now that the charges against her have been dropped, Gloria Carmody is spending the last dizzying days of summer on Long Island, yachting on the sound and palling around with socialites at Forrest Hamilton's swanky villa. Beneath her smile, though, Gloria's keeping a secret. One that could have deadly consequences . . .
My Review:
I received Vixen (book 1 in the Flapper Series) a couple of years ago and LOVED it. I requested an ARC of Ingenue, book 2 in the series, and was denied. When Diva, book 3, came out, I tried again and was rewarded.
What I liked:
Even though I hadn’t read Ingenue, I knew where Vixen left off and where Diva picked up, and with the clues that Larkin sprinkled in throughout the story, I was able to fill in the story holes and not miss a beat.
Larkin does, once again, a brilliant job of making this another character driven novel. I love how the story is told from the points of view of all the main characters. Doing that really gave me a well-rounded and personal feel for each of the girls (and occasional guy), as well as a more 3-D image of the story. We’re given a view from Gloria that we would NEVER get from Clara. And the humor Lorraine provides would never be there had we only been told the story from Jerome’s point of view. You can’t help but form strong attachments to even the smaller-role characters with the way Larkin writes.
The 20’s has always been a favorite time period for me, and to have Larkin describe everything the way she does just puts me in heaven. I’d love to see this made into a movie so I could visually lust after all the gowns and shoes.
Favorite Line: It was better to risk loving too much before it was too late and all you were left with was regret. (pg 305, ebook)
What I didn’t like:
Even though I loved all the fashion talk about clothes and dresses, and I know that that was a big component of the 20’s, the name dropping got to be bit much at times.
I was a bit confused with Larkin’s dialogue tags. There would be a quote, then another person would be performing an action tagged onto someone else’s dialogue.
There were a few really good emotional scenes that really carry the momentum of the story that were interrupted with too much narrative which pulled me out and made the scene lose the impact Larkin was trying to give it. Also, there were a few high tension scenes that were just too short lived.
Overall, this is another terrific book in the Flapper Series, seamlessly knit with the first two, and an easy read. I really enjoyed reading it and will go back and pick up the second book just so I can get more of the Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine.
Happy reading, my friends!”“Diva was just an ok read for me. I was happy just to finish it. There were no highs or lows, just a story with an average plot. I will say what/who held my interest was Lorraine. She was the life of the story. She was the glue that held it all together. I trudged through this book to see what she would do or say next. I also liked Melvin. I knew he would get his just due in the end. I'm sorry but I don't have much more to add. However, the story was very descriptive-scenes,clothing and a bit of history.
Tia Faciane wrote this review Sunday, July 1, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House/Delacorte for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.”
“3.5/5 stars!
the golden witch. wrote this review Sunday, July 1, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Okay, so this one dragged in a few places (mostly, I think, because the main arcs were wrapped up in book two), but I did like the ending and the epilogue for the closure it finally gave everyone involved in this series. At first I asked myself why this book was needed at all, and I eventually got my answer. “Diva” is a fun end to an equally fun trilogy, even if this one is more of an epilogue to the previous fast-paced high-action books full of glamorous mobsters and flappers.
I found this one had a lot less urgency (even though there should have been more, considering Gloria’s tenuous position with the FBI), and felt that it lingered in more places than it should have compared to the previous two. That being said, Larkin’s use of sensory language and imagery soars the most in this final book – I could taste the food and drink, feel the lovely dresses and my hair bobbed, and feel the salty wind in my face on the yacht. The fashions were awesome, and I did kind of feel like bobbing my hair by the end of everything. It’s kind of what saved the book, with the exception of the ending – the ending made it all worth it.
I also do feel like Larkin could have used Jerome for more than just a punching bag, but with what evidence we do have of how African-Americans were treated during this period, I suppose it’s true to that. He felt a little underused compared to everyone else, and considering how central he was to the previous book (and now, to how Gloria is serving out her sentence for the feds), it almost felt like he was tossed away, and that wasn’t too great. I did like how everyone sort of mended fences, and the last two chapters were some of the most fantastic of the trilogy. But in between those, there was an unpleasant laggy feeling, so…I don’t really know what to make of it. But because the ending was so insanely awesome, it makes up for the lag. I also wondered why we were given new characters as some of the time they felt like filler, but they acted as good foils (though throwing the semi-love triangle didn’t really flow too well with everything else) for other characters that were otherwise occupied. All in all, I’m satisfied with what I got, but I think it could have used another editorial pass or two to make it feel a little less disjointed/rough around the edges altogether.
Final verdict? If you’ve read this far into the trilogy, you may as well finish it. Fans of the first two books will love this final book in the series, and finally feel a sense of closure with our heroes getting their happily ever afters they sorely deserve. “Diva” is out July 10th 2012 from Random House in North America, so be sure to check it out then!
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)”
“#3 in the series.”
Kristine C wrote this review Wednesday, November 30, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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