2-in-1 mini reviews by Robin Benway!

One of the great things about being in this blogosphere is when you read someone else's blog, you will usually come up with tons of great book recommendations. When I was reading one of (the amazing) Alice's (at Alice in Readerland) posts, she mentioned Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway. I think it was only about a week later when she mentioned the book again. So, of course, what do I do? Get it!

That, my friends, is when I fell in love with Robin Benway. 

California high school student Audrey Cuttler dumps self-involved Evan, the lead singer of a little band called The Do-Gooders. Evan writes, “Audrey, Wait!” a break-up song that’s so good it rockets up the billboard charts. And Audrey is suddenly famous!

Now rabid fans are invading her school. People is running articles about her arm-warmers. The lead singer of the Lolitas wants her as his muse. (And the Internet is documenting her every move!) Audrey can?t hang out with her best friend or get with her new crush without being mobbed by fans and paparazzi.

Take a wild ride with Audrey as she makes headlines, has outrageous amounts of fun, confronts her ex on MTV, and gets the chance to show the world who she really is.

Title: Audrey, Wait!

Author: Robin Benway

Published: April 10th, 2008

Publisher: Razorbill

ISBN:159514191X 

Mini-Review:

"The day I broke up with my boyfriend was the day he wrote the song." 

While she doesn't explain everything right there, you aren't tip-toeing around the subject matter either. Like she puts it in the next sentence: "You know, the song." If you read the very intriguing synopsis, you know that Audrey is suddenly thrown into the spotlight thanks to her ex-boyfriend Evan writing a song about her that strangely gets millions of hits. Think of those Youtube videos and such that people never think would land them a guest spot on Ellen or a record label or on the front page of Yahoo! But that's what happens to Audrey and she didn't do anything except break up with a egotistical boyfriend who is the lead singer in a band...and didn't turn around when he called out for her.

Although you get the point that there are many reasons not to like Evan, and I even went, "Why did you stay with him so long again?",  Audrey is wonderful. Robin Benway has a fantastic writing style. She's humorous, delightful, and attention-grabbing. In turn, that makes Audrey amazing. 

I thought the whole plot was fun because wouldn't it be weird (but cool to imagine) suddenly getting thrown in the limelight, having reporters come at you, and your world turn upside down? To me, I loved that it didn't happen RIGHT AFTER he sang the song at the gig. It wouldn't be realistic. Everybody loved the song at the gig, but Audrey forgot about it after a couple months until wham! there's the shocker of it going big (to her, not us, of course). 

The two annoyances I had with this book is her best friend Victoria and the cursing. It was might have been realistic, I'm not sure, but Victoria was frustrating me with her pushy ways. Every way she could, she pushed Audrey. Push, push, push. I wanted to scream at her to grow a backbone. However, I did see Victoria's side of it. Audrey began to complain about all the attention and was starting to always talk negatively about it, which would definitely grow weary and just plain frustrating. She wasn't the same anymore, as it would be normal for her not to be. So really, I wanted to grab both of them by the shoulders and shake them. 

The cursing, though, was another problem. I don't like cursing. Period. I know it's "teen-realistic" for people to have cursing in their novels, but I have read great YA books where they avoided it quite nicely. They might have implied it or at least had a couple minor ones and that was it, and I didn't feel gipped in the slightest. So after a bit, my eyes just blocked it out because I wasn't able to put down the book. 

Verdict: Audrey, Wait! grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go until I was sleep deprived the next morning. 

I hugged my sisters and they fit against my sides like two jigsaw pieces that would never fit anywhere else. I couldn't imagine ever letting them go again, like releasing them would be to surrender the best parts of myself.

Three sisters share a magical, unshakeable bond in this witty high-concept novel from the critically acclaimed author of Audrey, Wait! Around the time of their parents' divorce, sisters April, May, and June recover special powers from childhood--powers that come in handy navigating the hell that is high school. Powers that help them cope with the hardest year of their lives. But could they have a greater purpose?

April, the oldest and a bit of a worrier, can see the future. Middle-child May can literally disappear. And baby June reads minds--everyone's but her own. When April gets a vision of disaster, the girls come together to save the day and reconcile their strained family. They realize that no matter what happens, powers or no powers, they'll always have each other.

Because there's one thing stronger than magic: sisterhood.

Title: The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June

Author: Robin Benway

Published: August 1st, 2010 (first published June 1st 2010)

Publisher: Razorbill

ISBN: 159154286X

Mini-Review:

After I read Audrey, Wait! I scoured the library for more Robin Benway novels. I saw this and didn't even read the synopsis before I checked it out. When I read the inside flap at home, excitement bubbled inside of me. Sisters with superpowers? I'm a sucker for superpowers or superheros. 

We start the book off with the eldest, April, narrating the first chapter. They rotate each chapter in the same order: April, May, then June. They tell their side of what happened and each day and what they're feeling. 

April sees the future. After she comes to terms with having this power, she explains how each time she wakes up and sees her mother, she quickly assesses her future for the day to make sure nothing tragic happens. April is like a second mother to her two younger sisters, even though they're all only a year apart. And like all generalized firstborns, she's the brainiac and overachiever. 

May disappears. I like to call it invisibility, but they just say she disappears. Her power goes hand in hand with how she feels about her life. My mother and sister would say that she has the "middle child syndrome" where middle children exaggerate about how hard it is being a middle child and how life isn't fair for them. However, while I do not feel as horrible as May does, I understand what she says about being a middle child probably because I'm a middle child myself. May is also the one who started the chain of events that led them to move to another state. Their parents got divorced, May got hammered, then they moved. My problem with this is that they never really explained how that led them to moving, but I'll go on.  

 June reads minds. She's a incoming freshman in high school who is a very perky, very self-conscious teenager. She wants to be popular and not a friendless outcast like May and neither is she interested in school like April. Of course, she uses her mind reading abilities to gain popularity and friends...and to see what her big sisters are thinking about. With her power, she gets out of hand with trying to be "cool" and is accused of being unethical. 

At first, I had trouble with the ever-changing narrating views. Some people might hate it throughout the story, but I grew to love it. April is clearly the main narrator, with her starting and ending the novel. For different reasons, May was my favorite. She's witty, humorous, and lovable. She might be moody and have problems, but that's a good thing. 

There were a couple scenes that I thought was unrealistic (I know, it's a book about superpowers, hush) where I stopped reading and squint at it in mild disgust because that would just never go over well and no one would ever do that. The plus with this book is that there was way less cursing so blare the trumpets for Robin!  

Verdict: I definitely liked Audrey, Wait! better than The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June, but clearly, Robin Benway is a winner. 

I would like to thank again Alice from Alice in Readerland for being the great blogger she is by recommending me a new author to enjoy. Sadly, Robin doesn't have any other books until her next book Also Known As comes out (February 26th, 2013) which I highlighted in my Wishlist Wednesday post.

Do you recommend another author for me to try? 

Comment below!