Review: Bright Young Things by Anna Godberson

Released: October 12, 2010 Published by: HarperCollins
Series: Bright Young Things, Book One
Star Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Amazon Kindle Store
Page Amount: 389
Age Group: Young Adult

Summary

The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.

Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star...

Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined—and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for...and someone will.

The only person Cordelia can trust is Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.

Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls' fortunes will rise and fall—together and apart. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Luxe comes an epic new series set in the dizzying last summer of the Jazz Age.

Review

I’ve always been a big fan of historical fiction, and I knew I needed to read more of it. When I was informed that this book was temporarily free for the Kindle, I took advantage of it. I’ve never read anything by Anna Godberson before this, but her books have been on my to-be-read list for a long time now. I was not disappointed!

The beginning of this novel didn’t captivate me right away. I wasn’t totally in love with the whole concept of escaping to New York City to live out big dreams of becoming a Broadway star/actress and being rich and famous (that’s a little Rachel Berry, don’t you think?) but by the middle of the novel I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those stereotypical breakout-star novels.

I loved the setting of this novel. New York City is somewhere that (before reading this novel, shortly after I went there for a couple days) I’ve always wanted to go, so I love reading books that are set there because it gives me a good image of what “the city that never sleeps” looks like.

Anna’s writing was beautiful. It was a lot more complex than some of the novels I’ve been reading recently, and I think it fit the story very well. I think she wrote it perfectly in that era. Even though I’m totally not an expert in history, I could totally see someone from that era speaking like Anna wrote it. At some points though, I could see a bit of modern talk slipping through, but it didn’t happen very often.

I loved Letty and Cordelia’s friendship in the beginning. Although, once you got around the middle it got very stereotypical and I couldn’t stand it. I although I loved Cordelia’s relationship with her father, I found it a bit unrealistic in some areas. It felt a bit rushed, as if it didn’t have time to fully develop like a real relationship should.

I recommend this novel to anybody who likes historical ficition which takes place during the flapper period. I would also recommend this novel to anybody who likes drama-type novels, as this novel was full of it! I really enjoyed reading this novel, and I look forward to picking up the next book in the series and reading Anna Godberson’s other works of fiction!

Cover Comments

This cover is gorgeous. I love it, I love the flapper era so this cover is definitely up my alley! I also LOVE the girl’s dress, I would totally wear it! I also love the font the title is written in, it’s simple yet not boring.