Retro Friday: The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

At First Sight: Nina, Avery and Mel have been best friends since what feels like forever, they were given the nickname The Bermudez Triangle by a snide little rival - because Nina's last name is Bermudez - and it stuck. But now the triangle is about to part for the first time ever, the summer before senior year of high school as Nina is going to a pre-college course in San Francisco, and Mel and Avery are staying behind in Saratoga.

But a lot of things can happen in one summer as all the girls fall in love. Nina with an environmental warrior, third generation hippie boy she meets while away. And Avery and Mel fall for each other.

Once the triangle is reunited, things quickly unravel, as Nina is more busy than ever, struggles with a long distance relationship and with the realization that there is something between Mel and Avery that they aren't telling her. And things don't improve after she realize what their secret is.

As the weeks pass, the triangle starts to fall apart, once Nina finds herself keeping secrets from Mel, who seems to finally be ready to admit to herself -and others - that she's gay; and as Avery pulls away, not ready to do the same.

Second Glance: The Bermudez Triangle has been in my TO BE READ list for quite a few years but somehow I never got around reading it. Until now... and I'm sad to say that I was, over all, a little disappointed with it all. I never could really connect with any of the girls and I frankly found them a little too self-absorbed.

The one I somewhat liked was Mel and Nina - a little -toward the late middle, before she did something to another character that pissed me off. I liked Parker - a friend Mel makes at her job - and the digs at the Irish restaurant where they work, but otherwise, I just didn't much care either way about what happened to the characters.

The ending was kind of cute though.

Bottom Line: I think this is one of those books where you need to connect to enjoy the book, I didn't, but it's well written and even funny at times. I didn't mind the gay stuff, it wasn't overdone or heavy handed, I just didn't much like the characters themselves - particularly Avery.
1/2

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! 

Book Review: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

WARNING: There will be spoilers regarding 13 Little Blue Envelopes

At First Sight: A few months after traveling through Europe following her beloved - and deceased - Aunt Peg's crazy instructions and having the adventure of a lifetime (see 13 Little Blue Envelopes), Ginny Blackstone is back home trying to write her application essay for college - the big one, about an experience that changed her life - and she knows there is only one thing she could write about: Her Aunt Peg's 13 Little Blue Envelopes quest, but she has no idea where to start.

So when a message pops in her inbox, showing a picture of the last envelope - the one that was stolen before she could read it - and then a message from someone called Oliver, urging her to go to London to retrieve the letters, Ginny jumps at the chance, deciding to spend the rest of winter break with her newly discovered uncle Richard in London. 

But once in there, things get complicated. Ginny's summer fling/kind of something guy Keith might be dating a beautiful girl named Ellis; Oliver has his own agenda for the last blue envelope, which sends Ginny into another insane quest, this time as part of a strange foursome.

Second Glance: Reading The Last Little Blue Envelope was kind of like getting reacquainted with an old friend, and from page one I was quite willing to follow Ginny on a new adventure. The beginning was a bit up and down, kind of drawn out, but once the book hit it's stride, it was very enjoyable. 

I actually loved the two new characters introduced, Ellis and Oliver, though the later was a bit of an acquired taste. Surprisingly, I wasn't a fan of Keith's in this story but oh well. I liked Ginny, I could see how she had grown up from the last book and it was great getting some closure to the story (it sort of always bothered me not knowing what was in the last envelope). 

Did wish that there was more of Richard, he's kind of my favorite character, actually.

Bottom Line: I think that fans of the first book - and of Maureen Johnson in general- will love the book. I do think it can be read on it's own, but you'll probably enjoy it a lot more if you read 13LBE first.  The Last Little Blue Envelope comes out on April 26th, 2011.

Favorite Quote: "Those are the giant snowmen of Carnaby Street," her uncle Richard explained. "Festive and disturbing, just the way we like it here. Don't look them in the eye."

Cover Love #15 - The Last Little Blue Envelope

Maureen Johnson did the cover reveal yesterday in her blog. I'm loving actually. I really want to read this book (I'm SUPER intrigued about what that last envelope said, I hope I can finally read it int he book!).

The Last Little Blue Envelope comes out April 2011, and Maureen has a new series coming out later in 2011, something paranormal involving Jack the Ripper!

Scarlet Fever by Maureen Johnson

As summer-time leaves New York, Scarlett Martin is saying goodbye to Hamlet, the play her brother and company staged at the Martins' worn down hotel. Without Hamlet, Scarlet won't be able to see her crush Eric - an actor in the play who turned out not to be such a good guy during Suite Scarlett - every day, even though she knows it's high time she stopped crushing on him.

Not that she's not plenty busy, with school starting and her boss Mrs. Amberson driving her insane.

Mrs. Amberson is trying to get more clients to represent - currently, her only client is Spencer, who hasn't managed to get a job even with the good buzz from Hamlet - which means Scarlett has to tag along as Mrs. Amberson tries to woo teenage Broadway star-in-the-making Chelsea to sign with them. With Chelsea comes Max, her older brother who's now attending Scarlett's school and driving her even more crazy.

To add to it all, Scarlett's younger sister Marlene is acting suspiciously nice - which is downright creepy - and her older sister Lola seems to be going back to her former boyfriend, the dull but rich Chip. And then Spencer lands a role that turns him into the most hated villain on TV.

Financial woes, hotel life and everything else are threatening to drive Scarlett crazy, or at least give her a fever, I guess.

I know that it sounds like there is a lot going on during Scarlet Fever but it isn't really the case, the first part of the book is slow, it picks up when Spencer and Lola start to have their own troubles but the go around in circles quite a lot and by the end - which was no end at all - I was only liking Spencer out of the huge cast of characters we have going on.

The ending, above all, made me feel just like I felt when I first saw The Fellowship of The Ring - you know, the ending that it's no ending at all - I felt cheated out of the ending.

Sure, maybe I was expecting more because I actually quite liked Scarlett and the Martins - except Marlene, I can't like her and it makes me feel like crap because she's a cancer survivor kid and I DON'T like her at all - during the first book, but I don't know.

This book was just not for me.

PS -Wish they had stayed with the original cover concept, this cover isn't bad but I liked to original concept better than the keys.

Book Gossip (#16)

Book Gossip # 16 - A cover, a summary and a follow up. Plus a couple of heads up!

Well, okay, the cover and the summary are of the same book, Julie James' Something About You, due out March 2, 2010

FATE HAS THROWN TWO SWORN ENEMIES...
Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago - and nearly ruining his career...

... INTO EACH OTHER'S ARMS
Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it's no joke: the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes - and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension...

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On a follow up to Book Gossip #15, it has been confirmed that Lisa Kleypas' upcoming books Married by Morning and Love in the Afternoon (the 'Me' in this title was a typo) are bout about the Hathaways - Leo and Beatrix respectively. I so can't wait.

-----

And, onto the heads up!

First, there are some good news about Maureen Johnson over at The Compulsive Reader.

And second, for those of you eagerly awaiting The Van Alen Legacy (which comes October 6), Melissa de la Cruz is posting Daily Mini-Exceprts of it via Twitter.

That's all!

Book Gossip (#11)

Book Gossip #11

It's official, Maureen Johnson announced via Twitter that there will be a sequel for her book 13 Little Blue Envelopes (published in 2005). She said she's working on it and there is no official release date as of yet.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Scarlett Martin's summer stretches ahead of her as a long, long period of torture. Starting at her fifteenth birthday things are not going well. Her birthday breakfast goes badly and then she's informed she will not be able to get a job for the summer and instead she'll be stuck working at the hopeless Hopewell Hotel -which her family owns - since the situation is quite dire as less and less guest come.

She's also given one room to care for, the Empire Suite and she's surprised when quickly afterward she gets permanent guest, Mrs. Amberson a C-list starlet from days past; who also happens to like sending Scarlett on errands for organic stuff, flirting with Scarlett's brother Spencer (though is quite harmless) and involving her on crazy schemes.

With the Hotel to save and Spencer's acting career on the line, Scarlett certainly gets a lot more out of her summer than what she bargained for.

I'll say that I liked the book, it started a little bit slow but by the end I was racing through the pages to get to the conclusion, and it's a good conclusion but it also feels like the closing of Part I, if you know what I mean. In fact I learned recently that Suite Scarlett is the first of a series (second being Scarlett Fever coming sometime next year) and it does have a bit of a feel of Book I, but all in all, it's quite good. I specially liked the interactions between the Martin siblings (Spencer, Lola, Scarlett and Marlene).

Grade

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

At First Sight: Ginny's favorite aunt, Peg, is dead and has left Ginny with a strange task: To follow the clues contained in 13 Little Blue Envelopes in a trip of a lifetime. 

These clues require her to travel first to New York City and then to England, where she meets Richard - her Aunt Peg's friend - and then Keith, a playwright  and actor and all around starving artist (another instruction from the envelopes). 

And then she's off, running all over Europe, following the clues and trying to figure out what happened during the last few months of her Aunt's life.

It's not easy, sometimes it's maddening, but it also turns out to be great.

Second Glance: I enjoyed this book a lot, it's funny and has a lot of heart. Ginny is very believable as a narrator and I liked her adventures, they were completely 'doable' in a way, I suppose, like entirely within the realm of possibility that it could happen.

There were some truly funny moments and other crazy, and times when she made mistakes. 

I did have a small problem with the book: Aunt Peg. She's a catalyst, the reason why the whole story happens, but once you start to think about it, you do realize that she put Ginny in many semi-dangerous situations and that it was rather irresponsible of her.

Bottom Line: An enjoyable story, with it's ups and downs but over all a very nice read.

2/3

Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson

Clio thought it would be a perfect summer as she just landed a job at a trendy art store where her crush, Ollie, works. But things quickly turn sour when Clio's Mom has to go to Kansas for the summer and she ends up in Italy with her crazy father.

Clio is not happy about this, she and her dad don't get along but to add to it, she's stuck on a boat with his dad's new girlfriend Julia, Julia's daughter Elsa and Julia's assistant Aidan... and no one will tell her what exactly are they all doing on the boat.

I really liked this book, the prose flows beautifully and even though it's in third person it allows you to connect with Clio and what she's feeling as things get confusing and messy and she keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop. Clio's relationships with the other crew members of the ship are the real strength of the book: her friendship with Elsa, her distrust of Julia and her lack of communication with her dad.

There is a bit of romance on the book but it doesn't overpower the story.

Grade:
1/2