Book Review: Diva

And finally I get to the finale of the Flappers series, finally since I got this book from Random Buzzers back in the summer but then had to spend all that time tracking down copies of the first two books and, well, finding time to read them (plus everything else I had). So there's not much to say here to introduce the story that I haven't said in previous reviews, it finishes up the tale of Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine (with Jerome providing two or three point of view chapters) as they come into adulthood in New York City in the 1920s and make a whole bunch of dangerous mistakes along the way. Hmm, I feel like that would make either an excellent or terrible tagline for a book, probably terrible since I wouldn't pick up a story like that.....


Diva by Jillian Larkin

Summary: Gloria is in jail, Jerome is in danger, Clara is estranged, and Lorraine is being Lorraine (that is, meaning well in her own mind but causing trouble for everyone around her). But Gloria has a chance to work out a deal with the FBI and Clara and Lorraine realize that Clara's former beau is being roped into a scam, none of them have a chance to just sit around and watch life unfold around them if they want anything to work out well so it's time to undo some mistakes and get into even more trouble in the process.

The Good: I was okay with the very end, Gloria and Jerome's choice seemed somewhat logical (I keep meaning to actually look up details-that-are-spoilers to see if it really would have worked) and I couldn't think of a better ending myself. It was nice to see Clara "redeem" herself after the previous book and Lorraine finally became a semi-likable character for me which impressed me. The real story of this trilogy has been the romance or the various troubles the girls get into but one big character arc for each of them and by the end I was satisfied with those arcs. It seemed like each girl had a good beginning, middle, and end and, while not overly creative in some places, each girl had become a more rounded character by the end and that's always a good thing.

The Bad: The climax was, eeeehhhhhh I stand by my assessment last time that while Larkin does okay drama she seems to have trouble coming up with really grand finales that actually make sense. I'm of mixed feeling about Lorraine's ending, on the one hand it feels like a "pair the spares" move but on the other hand it's completely in character for Lorraine. The climax certainly didn't do Marcus any favors and honestly I just couldn't find the effort to care about the story that Gloria had found herself involved in and didn't really feel strongly one way or other when everything was all said and done.


So in short, as I expected after the second book the final book here didn't end up wowing me although it wasn't terrible. I give it 2.5 stars out of 5 and, well, if I was to come across any of Larkin's future books I'm honestly not sure I would try them. Granted there are several authors where I don't like their initial book series but then like books they write later on but at this point I'm not going to keep an eye out for her name just in case this turns out to be the case here. 

Book Review: Ingenue

Another e-book, this was the book where my library didn't have the first book in the series (Vixen), only had the second book as an e-copy, and I won the third book (Diva) so I finally had some motivation to track down the first book. I should note one thing though, apparently I misremembered the end of Vixen and Gloria does in fact follow Jerome to NYC, not sure how I didn't remember that but they're together at the start here so clearly that's what happened. 

Ingenue by Jillian Larkin

Summary: A lot has happened since Gloria’s party, she’s now slumming it in New York City with Jerome and trying to find work, Lorraine has ended up working for a club in NYC run by mobsters, and Clara is now writing about the clubs and flapper lifestyle in NYC. In a city of millions you would think their lives wouldn’t cross but Jerome’s sister Vera is banking on it, someone has ordered a hit on Gloria and Jerome and it’s a race against time to find them first before they find themselves dead.

The Good: Vera was a new addition to the cast and I liked her a lot. When I think about it she’s actually a little more fleshed out than she first appears (ie, someone whose only goal is to find someone else, in general I find people’s whose goals center around someone else to be a bit flat) and she was certainly the most sensible of the viewpoint characters this time around. Even though I’m still not a bit fan of Lorraine she did have some good development and I’m sure many people would find her to be the most interesting character.

The Bad: What do you mean that the subplot about the assassin barely had any impact on the rest of the story? It's not like that wasn't the entire point of involving Vera in the story (who, spoilers, is not in Diva), or like the story could have worked without that convenient way to kill off a few undesirable characters. This book could be summed up as tension for the sake of tension both concerning the plot and for half of the relationships as well. In retrospect, having read Diva as well, I wonder if this series might have worked better as either a duo book set rather than a trilogy because honestly there just wasn't much here when everything is said and done.


As said, I've already read Diva as well, should get to that one next week, but as the series goes on I'm becoming less and less interested in it which is sad given how few books are even set in the 1920s. I give this book 2.5 stars out of three, let's see if Diva can do any better! 

Book Review: Vixen

Sorry that once again this is late, although considering this book has been out for a few years now I don't think that a day is going to make much of a difference. The whole reason I hadn't read this book earlier, even though it was set in the 1920s and I really like reading about that era, was due to the simple fact that my library didn't have a copy of it. They do have a copy of the e-book for the next book in the series, but the not the first book in any way shape or form so I hadn't bothered tracking it down. That is until I won a copy of the third book in the series and then found that a library in a nearby town (which was in the same county so I could get a library card to it) so I grabbed it from there. So was it worth that extra effort after all?

Vixen by Jillian Larkin

Summary: There's a strange dichotomy to Gloria's life in 1920s Chicago. By day she goes to her prestigious private school and by night she sneaks out to speakeasies to drink and listen to jazz, although that's nothing compared to the double life her cousin Clara has. Her friend Lorraine is jealous of both parts of Gloria's life however and as Gloria gets pulled deeper and deeper into the seductive, seedy side of life Clara tries to help her out but Lorraine is only interested in helping herself.

The Good: I really liked Clara's chapters and wish that she had been the "main" character of the story instead of Gloria (all three of the girls are lead characters but it's clear that Gloria's actions are the ones that shape the other two girls lives, hence why she's the main character). I really hope she turns up in the next book since not only did she feel more realistic than the other two but she was more interesting, how many stories do we see that happened entirely after the character has made their life-altering, dumb, choice? It was both unusual and gave her some extra depth that the other two girls didn't have.

The Bad: Lorraine is an unreliable narrator and you know what? I just don't like unreliable narrators as much, it's just not a style I like as much so of course I'm not going to enjoy her part of the story as much. Even taking into account that an unreliable narrator will see themselves much differently from the way the other characters do, she was so different by the end of the book for no reason except for festering jealousy that I tried to read though her chapters as fast as possible. I hope she doesn't appear as much in the next book (although I doubt it since she's such a good tool to move the plot around) but what bothered me more was how this book ended. It felt as if the author was planning on writing a stand alone novel and then got a book deal for a series so they had to hastily rework the ending. Of course that's probably not what happened at all and I suppose they were going for "realism" by not having a happy ending (or at least, not giving the characters a happy ending yet) but I did feel like I got cheated out of a nice ending when I was done with the book.

So, was the wait worth it? Ehhhhh, it wasn't a terrible read but I do wish it had been, different. I'll still read the other two books (I'm determined to get them both read and reviewed before January 1st) but now I don't feel so bad about taking so long to get there.

Oh, and by popular request (you know who you are~) I give this book 2.5 or 3 stars out of 5, depending on your tolerance for unreliable narrators and how dull you find Gloria's story to be.