Jillian LarkinBesprekingen

Fun and dishy for today's teens. With good writers, it could be the next Mad Men.

Yay for a change from vampire dramas!

In Vixen we are transported to Prohibition era Chicago: jazz, speakeasies, mobsters, debutantes, and plenty of drama. Fast read, guilty pleasure, cliche characters... yet, because the gossipy storyline and fun slang, it was pretty enjoyable. Plot builds up dramatically and the ending leaves the reader hanging. Made for a WB series. I can easily see flappers becoming the new vampires of teen lit.

This one is for older teens, not only because of subject matter, but because it will take some experience and worldliness to pick up on the Roaring Twenties slang.

If I had a guilty pleasure book, this would be it.

Seriously, it has everything I adore: 20s glamour and flappers, jazz music, ridiculous YA drama, a pretty cover and a fast moving plot.

I ended up picking this book on clearance years ago. Like most books I own, it got lost somewhere in my house and I forgot it existed. Then, one day during my epic cleaning sprees to deal with my epic boredom, I found it! Since I'm trying to give myself a well rounded read shelf for 2020, I decided to pick it up. Plus, who doesn't want some goofy, YA, flapper fun?

This story follows 3 girls:
1. Gloria - engaged to some hot, not super nice, rich guy but wants to let herself fall in love with a jazz musician.
2. Clara - Gloria's cousin who is super goody goody, but clearly has a bad past she is trying to hide.
3. Lorraine - the not so nice girl who is friends with Gloria but wants to be the center of attention SO bad and can't get the guy so she's clearly gonna be a jerk. You know, the mean girl.

This book is super strange for me. It's packed full of YA drama and gossip, so this really shouldn't be my thing but I was SO DIGGING IT. It's like my lack of human interaction has made this kind of gossip gold for me. Either way, I totally loved it and needed this sort of fun in my life. It's like Gossip Girl or 90210 or other super dramatic stories.

I can easily say this book won't be for everyone. These girls in the 20s are definitely like girls from the 2010s/2020s. They have feminist life goals and want to be strong women. They don't fit into the 20s society, but totally fit into today. I didn't mind, because I just wanted a fun read and let myself sink into the drama. Buuuut, if you're looking for historical accuracy then this book is not for you. Enjoy the book for what it is!

The book is easy to read and the drama moves fast. There's constantly something going on, and since the book changes perspectives between the three girls we always see something different. There isn't as much romance as there is drama in this book. I expected some awesome love and romance plots, but love is kind of the back burner thing. There are dates and some kisses and sometimes some love confessions, but this is by no means a romance - it's a drama.

Overall, this book is fluffy and glamorous. I want to continue reading this series, mostly because it is totally a guilty pleasure. I love it for what it is - good job Jillian Larkin!

Four out of five stars!

I was going to give it a 3 stars but the way Gloria treated her best friend, I hated it. I didn't believe her love for Jerome either.

The Flappers series continues with Ingénue as the latest installment. Gloria Carmody, Clara Knowles, Lorraine Dyer, and Vera Johnson are now in New York to continue their various dramas and loves amid the backdrop of 1920s Manhattan and Brooklyn. Gloria and her black lover are on the run from the mob because she had killed Tony who was about to kill Jerome. Lorraine is working in a speakeasy run by the mob and planning how to lure Gloria and Jerome to the club so Carlito can exact his revenge. Clara comes to New York to find her cousin Gloria and winds up moonlighting as a journalist for the new social magazine, Manhattanite. And Vera witnesses the murder of Gloria’s ex-fiancé by a mysterious woman who is looking for Jerome, which drives her to New York as well. Phew! Most of the historic detail is saved for the flapper styles the girls wear but this won’t bother most teen readers who will enjoy the love interests, double-dealing, and back stabbing. This is a vintage retelling of Gossip Girl or the Private series and fans of the Luxe series by Godberson will eagerly await the third part in the trilogy.

Somewhere in the back of my head, while reading Vixen, I learned that I'm glad I wasn't born a girl. And it's not for the patriarchal reasons that most men might come up with, but because when it comes to cruelty, you girls take the cake. Boys will physically bully the weaker one, but girls destroy you socially, emotionally, mentally - which is far worse than the bruise on your forearm.

Jillian Larkin created a world - set in the 1920s, the flapper generation (not to mention the age of the Lost Generation where expatriates roamed around other countries, each writing great novels) - that sucks you right in and leads you down the path of three lives of three rather stunning girls.

There's Gloria, a top-notch socialite whose engagement to Sebastian "Bastian" Grey only means a life of boredom for her. In a last attempt of adventure, Gloria sets off with friend Marcus Eastman to the most notorious speakeasy in Chicago - the Green Mill. There, Gloria is lured into the world of the flapper. She's seduced by their allure and their brash lifestyle. The singer on the stage sparks her most wildest dream of singing in front of a live crowd - a dream that would never be realized as long as she is engaged to marry Bastian. Most of all, she feels a sudden magnetic attraction to the piano player and jazz musician, Jerome Johnson.

Then there's Clara, Gloria's cousin from Pennsylvania, who arrives to Chicago under the assumption to help Gloria with her wedding. Truth is, Clara's running away from the life she led in New York. She plots to use Chicago as a fresh start. There she is drawn into her cousin's secrets and her inner circle. Most of all, she is drawn to Marcus Eastman. However, strange notes start arriving - first mysteriously left in her room - and a ghost from her past resurfaces. Clara is faced with her secret life unraveling while keeping up her act.

And finally, there's Lorraine, Gloria's closet friend. As she realizes those in her world are slowly drifting in several directions, she begins to scheme how to get them back. However, the more she schemes against her best friend and Clara, the deeper she digs her grave.


Jillian Larkin breathes a unique life into each of her characters, never afraid to turn the tables at a whim. Vixen is probably the best young adult novel I've read this year (that's not saying a lot considering it's the first I've read this year). Best of all, it lacks what is taken too seriously these days - you won't find cell phones, wizards or vampires in this novel. Instead, you get the sheer glamor of a lifestyle your grandparents probably enjoyed or were against. You are dropped into a world where communication between friends isn't as easy as signing onto an instant messenger or picking up your cellphone to text. No, Larkin picked the 1920s because things were difficult back than, while at the same time being much simpler. She created a love story we wouldn't think twice about these days but would have caused an uproar in scandal back then. She created a world in which girls still scheme against each other, but they did it in fashion - no joke, I really do like the 1920s which acts as the sole reason for my interest in the novel. I surely can't wait until Ingenue hits bookshelves in August of this year.

I realize this is flapper dessert to indulge in, but I had too many others to read and had to put it down for now. It just was not that well written and kind of silly. I will revisit later due to reviews and my lack of patience.

I realize this is flapper dessert to indulge in, but I had too many others to read and had to put it down for now. It just was not that well written and kind of silly. I will revisit later due to reviews and my lack of patience.

Clara, Gloria, Lorraine....get to know these girls and then REALLY get to know them for is so often the case, it's not what's on the outside but on the inside that counts. With all these girls are hiding, oh boy...get ready for some happening times, shocking revelations, danger, romance, and all that jazz....no really, there's jazz and though I'm not a huge fan of that particular music scene, I totally fell under this book's spell.

Okay, fellow readers of YA...get ready for a book that is unstoppable, unforgiving, and totally, utterly...JAKE! The paranormal creatures will always live in YA stories, but the new wave that is making its way to the front of the line is the 1920s. That's right...so grab your best flapper-esque dress, vamp up your lipstick, bob your hair and give your best smoldering look to the camera because flappers are the bees knees and this story is the cat's meow!

Recommended reading for mid to late teen readers through adults! It's a pos-i-lute-ly fabulous time! Scheduled release is in December 2010, but I'm already marking my calendar for 2011 when the sequel is due out. ^_^ Happy reading!

What a ride. 2nd in a series apparently. This has a group of young women who have all migrated from Chicago to NYC. Each chapter is told by a different one of the girls and once you get them all established in your head it gets easier to read. We have a mixture of blacks and whites. One young woman out to make a new life for herself, one out to save her brother, one out for revenge and another who's on the run from the mob with her lover. Again once you get who's established in your head it's a great read and fast paced. Towards the half way point we see how all of the stories are interconnected, for those of us who hadn't read the first book yet.

This was an ok read. I don't know if I will continue reading the series.
The characters were interesting, i love the setting but he writing was a little "off" for me.

Read my overall review of the whole series here! Spoiler Free!

The 1920's have always grabbed my attention since learning about the decade in my high school history class so I was immediately drawn to the series.

I read all three books over the course of a week (they are super quick reads!) and I really enjoyed them.

What I really love is that we get 3 different stories wrapped into one novel. I like when a lot of things are happening in books, so the multiple POVs really captured my attention. I definitely preferred some of the girls' (ie. Clara's) stories and POVs more than others (ie. Lorriane) but every book needs that person you don't like and she wasn't totally intolerable either.

Vixen was a solid book. I loved the romance, the suspense and the plot twists we get along the way. It was a lot of fun to read and I quickly did just that.

Overall: The set-up of the book reminded me a lot of [b:Gossip Girl|22188|Gossip Girl (Gossip Girl, #1)|Cecily von Ziegesar|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398814332s/22188.jpg|3061184] in the sense that the there are betrayals, hook-ups and constant struggles for power within a "close" group of friends as they rebel against their upbringing but set in the 1920s instead of today. If you enjoy the flapper era or want to give it a shot, this is a great book to pick up!

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!

I picked this up just for the cover.
It looked so apropos at the Jazz Age Lawn Party!
Upon reading it, at first I was a little taken aback by the 'juvenile' feel to it - it's got a hefty dose of teen romance. At times I felt as if the author's ideas about teen relationships were not very firmly grounded in her time period, and were based instead on modern conventions.
However, as the book went on, I got more into it, and fond myself caring what happened with the characters.
It still suffers from stereotypes, and an oversimplified sense of bad/good.
But if I come across the sequel (it's very much set up for a sequel) I just might pick it up...

Vixen follows three girls living in the roaring twenties. Country-cousin Clara is putting on a show of being a goody two shoes while staying with her cousin. She's living in Chicago with her cousin Gloria who is supposed to be planning one of the most important social events of the season, her weading to Sabastian Grey. Lorraine is Gloria's childhood best friend and she is getting very jealous of Gloria. Gloria's fun in the speakeasy, Gloria's upcoming marriange and Gloria's relationship with her cousin Clara.

It took me a while to review this one because I kept getting distracted by other things. I should have reviewed it right away so I could be more specific but cest la vie.

The beginning of this book was just not entertaining to me. It felt like the author was trying to hard. There was too much slang and it didn't all sound right. Some of the descriptions were a little heavy handed too. (The description of her first taste of gin was just a little bit much, I'm not going into specifics cause it was just gross.)

However as it progressed I started to enjoy it more and more. There were lots of little mysteries going on. What was Clara's secret? Who kept spilling Gloria's secrets? I felt like these little mysteries made it more interesting and kept the book going for me.

Vixen follows three girls living in the roaring twenties. Country-cousin Clara is putting on a show of being a goody two shoes while staying with her cousin. She's living in Chicago with her cousin Gloria who is supposed to be planning one of the most important social events of the season, her weading to Sabastian Grey. Lorraine is Gloria's childhood best friend and she is getting very jealous of Gloria. Gloria's fun in the speakeasy, Gloria's upcoming marriange and Gloria's relationship with her cousin Clara.

It took me a while to review this one because I kept getting distracted by other things. I should have reviewed it right away so I could be more specific but cest la vie.

The beginning of this book was just not entertaining to me. It felt like the author was trying to hard. There was too much slang and it didn't all sound right. Some of the descriptions were a little heavy handed too. (The description of her first taste of gin was just a little bit much, I'm not going into specifics cause it was just gross.)

However as it progressed I started to enjoy it more and more. There were lots of little mysteries going on. What was Clara's secret? Who kept spilling Gloria's secrets? I felt like these little mysteries made it more interesting and kept the book going for me.

Vixen follows three girls living in the roaring twenties. Country-cousin Clara is putting on a show of being a goody two shoes while staying with her cousin. She's living in Chicago with her cousin Gloria who is supposed to be planning one of the most important social events of the season, her weading to Sabastian Grey. Lorraine is Gloria's childhood best friend and she is getting very jealous of Gloria. Gloria's fun in the speakeasy, Gloria's upcoming marriange and Gloria's relationship with her cousin Clara.

It took me a while to review this one because I kept getting distracted by other things. I should have reviewed it right away so I could be more specific but cest la vie.

The beginning of this book was just not entertaining to me. It felt like the author was trying to hard. There was too much slang and it didn't all sound right. Some of the descriptions were a little heavy handed too. (The description of her first taste of gin was just a little bit much, I'm not going into specifics cause it was just gross.)

However as it progressed I started to enjoy it more and more. There were lots of little mysteries going on. What was Clara's secret? Who kept spilling Gloria's secrets? I felt like these little mysteries made it more interesting and kept the book going for me.

Vixen follows three girls living in the roaring twenties. Country-cousin Clara is putting on a show of being a goody two shoes while staying with her cousin. She's living in Chicago with her cousin Gloria who is supposed to be planning one of the most important social events of the season, her weading to Sabastian Grey. Lorraine is Gloria's childhood best friend and she is getting very jealous of Gloria. Gloria's fun in the speakeasy, Gloria's upcoming marriange and Gloria's relationship with her cousin Clara.

It took me a while to review this one because I kept getting distracted by other things. I should have reviewed it right away so I could be more specific but cest la vie.

The beginning of this book was just not entertaining to me. It felt like the author was trying to hard. There was too much slang and it didn't all sound right. Some of the descriptions were a little heavy handed too. (The description of her first taste of gin was just a little bit much, I'm not going into specifics cause it was just gross.)

However as it progressed I started to enjoy it more and more. There were lots of little mysteries going on. What was Clara's secret? Who kept spilling Gloria's secrets? I felt like these little mysteries made it more interesting and kept the book going for me.

I also couldn't get into this story. I think the whole flipping back and forth between characters was disorienting. I think that the concept is cool and the look into a fascinating period in American history was very cool. This book is like a 20's version of Gossip Girl. So if you like drama and intrigue this book is definitely for you.

A young adult novel set in the roaring 20's, smack dab in the thick of it all in downtown Chicago. Gloria Carmody is a straight A student, socialite debutante who is engaged to Sebastian Grey. Her troubled cousin, Clara Knowles, comes to help with the wedding and get away from her secret past. Lorraine Dyer is Gloria's best friend, who happens to be a flapper, has some important choices to make regarding their friendship. Marcus Eastman is like a brother to Gloria, the object of Lorraine's unrequited love and a definite playboy. Together the four take the reader through the seedy, underground world of gangsters and flappers during the Prohibition Era in a quest to find themselves, and love.

This book was very hard for me to put down. In fact this is the first week for discussion on it for the Barnes and Noble First Look and I couldn't stop reading at each designated sections. I just was not able to! I had to know more, I had to know what Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine were going to do next. I loved reading a timed piece like this, from the 1920's. This is part of a series by Jillian Larkin, so it ends with a bang and leaves you wanting for more. Of course we'll be waiting until next year to get our hands on Ingenue.

Even though this had a stellar ending I have to admit that a lot of this story was a snoozer. There was lots of backstory and build up that I think was well written and necessary to the story but just didn't capture my attention. (Hence the long time it took me to finish) 3.5 Stars and unsure about reading book 2.

This was somewhere between a 2 and 3 for me. The beginning half was slow and predictable as well as completely dramatic. The end was better and it almost got me interested in reading the next in the series but not quite. I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone honestly. Just an ok read.

I really wanted to love this book. This is one of my favorite times in history. Ultimately, I didn't care about the characters and not enough attention was paid to the history, fashion, or even the music of the Roaring 20's. I have no desire to read the rest of this series.

Excellent! Set in the middle of Prohibition, and told from the point of view of three girls, readers get a hint of life amongst the rich during bootlegging. We're introduced to gangsters and speakeasies, and their lifestyles. Each of the girls has a unique story to tell, as anger, longing and jealousy drip from the pages. A great read.

When last we left Lorraine in "Vixen," she had drunkenly outed her best friend Clara. Now working for the mob in N.Y., she has plans to betray Gloria and her boyfriend Jerome to the mob. Meanwhile, Gloria and Jerome managed to escape Chicago after Gloria killed mob man Carlito's hit man Tony. Despite his being black, Gloria has defied all the rules of society by loving him, and she's not giving in to them now. Starving and needing to work, they unknowingly accept jobs as a singer and piano player in Carlito's own speakeasy. Vera, Jerome's sister, feels guilty for setting up Gloria and her brother to Carlito and his men and is now in N.Y. to warn them of Carlito's plans to kill them. Meanwhile, Clara's life as a flapper was supposed to be over as she was ready to settle down with Marcus, the love of her life. Then she meets Parker, and writing for his magazine tears her and Marcus apart. Larkin has woven together another exciting story set in 1920's N.Y. when Flappers, Prohibition and Gangsters ruled the world.

“The Flappers” series is set during Prohibition in the 1920′s, and follows the lives of rich cousins Gloria Carmody, Clara Knowles, and their friend Lorraine Dyer who love partying, drinking forbidden liquor, and living the life of Flapper Girls. Gloria has just been released from jail, and is working as an undercover detective for the FBI trying to find some dirt on Forrest, a rich millionaire so she can really be freed.

Read the rest of the review on my blog: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/diva-jillian-larkin/