Rival – Review

Posted 5 February, 2011 by Danny in / 5 Comments

the cover is gorgeous!!!!
Rival
by Sarah Bennet Wealer (website, twitter)
(..this is a 2011 Debut!)
Publication date: February 15th by HarperTeen
Amazon (Kindle and Hardcover available for preorder)
Synopsis from goodreads:

What if your worst enemy turned out to be the best friend you ever had?

Meet Brooke: Popular, powerful and hating every minute of it, she’s the “It” girl at Douglas High in Lake Champion, Minnesota. Her real ambition? Using her operatic mezzo as a ticket back to NYC, where her family lived before her dad ran off with an up and coming male movie star.

Now meet Kathryn: An overachieving soprano with an underachieving savings account, she’s been a leper ever since Brooke punched her at a party junior year. For Kath, music is the key to a much-needed college scholarship.

The stage is set for a high-stakes duet between the two seniors as they prepare for the prestigious Blackmore competition. Brooke and Kathryn work toward the Blackmore with eyes not just on first prize but on one another, each still stinging from a past that started with friendship and ended in betrayal. With competition day nearing, Brooke dreams of escaping the in-crowd for life as a professional singer, but her scheming BFF Chloe has other plans. And when Kathryn gets an unlikely invitation to Homecoming, she suspects Brooke of trying to sabotage her with one last public humiliation.

As pressures mount, Brooke starts to sense that the person she hates most might just be the best friend she ever had. But Kathryn has a decision to make. Can she forgive? Or are some rivalries for life

Well what do we have?

We have two girls that couldn’t be any more different, the one rich, beautiful and popular. The other one although beautiful, she’s a loner has only one friend and has a very poor family. Yet, both share a passion for music and signing! They meet in Junior year and realize that although so differently they could be real and true friends.

Good Girl, Bad Girl??

The story is told in alternating POV which I found extremely interesting, you got into the head of both girls. At the beginning I was confused, normally you always have the “good” girl and the bitch, yet here it’s not clear. Which girl I love more? Gee, I still can’t answer that fully! I guess this is the best part of the book. The author manages to show both girls in a true light, with all flaws and everything. Both girl seem genuinely real and none of the girls was too perfect and too bitchy.

This is a story about two girls that could be best friends forever but lost themselves in a stupid fight in a stupid rivalry. I really enjoyed following those girls to see what happens. Apart from the alternating POV’s the Author also added the past, what happend before the girls hated each other so much and I truly loved this alternation, both girls, before and now. I think this gave the book the perfect pacing and it never felt boring!

Where was the kissing??

The only complain I have is the somehow anti-climatic ending and the lack of kissing. While I do think the ending was a good ending. An end that was not bloated with happiness and perfection but a little more wouldn’t have hurt. Don’t get me wrong, the end was good specially since it felt so real, but I’m a girl that needs a blast and a happily ever after.

Bottom Line..

It was a highly enjoyable read and truly wonderful Debut. If you love realistic feeling novels, then Rival is definitely perfect for you. I absolutely enjoyed the alternating POV’s and truly liked the pace of the book. With more heart warming moments it would have been even better….

Let me ask you:
do you prefer realistic endings or those that are
“too-good-to-be-true”
and are the perfect happily ever after?

Have a wonderful weekend!!

The following two tabs change content below.
Obsessive Reader by Night - Scientist at Day! You can also find me on goodreads. I'd love to get to know you so, don't be shy and say Hello!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Divider

5 Responses to “Rival – Review”

  1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I had been wondering if this one was worth the read.

    <a href="http://www.blogger.com/A%3Ca%20href=%2 <a href="http:// 2http://readinglark.blogspot.com/%22%3Endrea%20@%20Reading%20Lark%3C/a%3E”” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”> <a href="http://2http://readinglark.blogspot.com/%22%3Endrea%20@%20Reading%20Lark%3C/a%3E&quot;” target=”_blank”>2http://readinglark.blogspot.com/%22%3Endrea%20@%20Reading%20Lark%3C/a%3E” target=”_blank”>Andrea @ Reading Lark

    Reply »

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge