Bel Reviews: Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan's - "Spoiled" and "Messy"
If you’ve spent any time on the fashion watch-dog blog Go Fug Yourself dot com, you may (or may not) be aware of the co-creators of the website writing two YA books together.
** If you have no interest in fame and fashion you have my permission to stop reading now **
Spoiled starts the series off on an awkward spike stiletto heel. Molly Dix receives a death bed confession from her mother of the true identity of her paternal father. Brick (as in, thick-as-a) Berlin is a huge action movie star with a daughter to another woman. So when Brick offers to take Molly in, there isn’t much left for her to do but say yes.
Brooke, Brick’s other daughter, is on the brink of greatness and wants nobody to forget it. Having a half-sister turn up on her doorstep and suddenly not being the center of attention, throws Brooke into a tail spin.
You can only imagine what happens when the faux fur starts to fly.
Messy has been described as the half-sister to Spoiled. Brooke is running with her five seconds of fame and wants it to last a little longer. In her pursuit of stardom, she acquires the help of Max McCormack to be a ghost writer for a fabulous blog about the life and times of Brook Berlin.
Max and Brooke enter into a mutually beneficial agreement. Though, as the girls find out; all is not necessarily fair in love and war.
I would say that my favourite book of the two is Messy. There were moments in both books where I had to get out the tissues and dab away a tear or two, but the pretense and writing style were more believable in the second book in the series.
Of all the characters, I think Max has been given the most influential and interesting character arc. Without giving away too much she is a good friend and an excellent sister. I actually would love to have her sit with me at lunch so we could get snarky about things that make us cringe.
I dislike Brick Berlin as a character. I dislike him so much he almost had me flinging the books at the wall.
If there are to be more books by Heather and Jessica I really hope they keep the emotional depth of Messy mixed with the humor of Spoiled. I like to see the nasty people get their comeuppance, and I don’t mind a happy ending. If they can do it in Jimmy Choo Shoes then what they hey…
These books are not to be taken seriously. They are meant to be fun and carefree. If you go in knowing this you’ll probably be able to get through both in a short period of time and walk away feeling lighthearted. Go ahead and add them to your winter/summer holiday reading list.
http://heatherandjessica.wordpress.com/
Hardcover, 368 pages
Expected publication: June 5th 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN 0316098299 (ISBN13: 9780316098298)
