Review-Step Up

Step Up by Monica McKayhan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a really cute, YA novel. I was a little iffy on it at first, but it got more interesting as it went on.

I was kinda put off at first by the fact that the first couple chapters in the book are narrated by two of the main characters, Vance and Tameka. The reason this bothered me was because these two are not mentioned anywhere in the synopsis on the back of the book. Now I know all stories have subplots, but in this story it seemed more like this was Vance/Tameka's story, and Marcus/Indigo were the subplot and I would've liked for that to be mentioned in the book summary.

But I did get over that. Tameka is sixteen years old and pregnant with Vance's baby. Vance has gone off to Grambling State University for his freshman year at college. He makes all kinds of promises to Tameka before leaving, about how he loved her and would always be there for her and the baby. But you know what happens to folks once they get to college.

I really liked both characters of Vance and Tameka. Neither is perfect, and they were presented in a realistic manner and I didn't feel like either of them was wrong in this situation, just that they were both young and at the peak of their lives and made a mistake. I'm glad the story ended with both of them in a good place. The only thing I would've liked to know was if Tameka and Sean ever got together. He was a really sweet boy also, and I liked how nice he was to Tameka during their situation.

Then there was Marcus and Indigo's story, which mirrored Vance/Tameka's in that Marcus was going away during the summer for a program at Harvard University and leaving Indigo at home. Even though he wasn't a college student yet, he also got caught up in the new girls he met on campus. Mostly I found their story a little boring, especially since at first it was going to exact same way as Vance and Tameka's (minus the pregnancy of course). I did like Marcus' Korean roommate, Jae, whom Marcus was teaching slang to. In fact, the plot with Marcus and his roommates (Jae, Paul, Chris, and Derrick) was even a bit more interesting than his relationship with Indigo.

Anyways, I thought this was a good, interesting story that's a good eye-opener to how things can change when people are separated and when young adults begin college. I would definitely read more by this author and would want to read more about what happens with these characters.



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Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, YA Reading Challenge

Review-Work What You Got

Work What You Got by Stephanie Perry Moore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is about a college sophomore named Hayden who is excited about starting her sophomore year at Western Smith College with her 3 best friends, Myra, Bridget, and Chandra.



The one thing Hayden wants most of all is to join the sorority Beta Gamma Pi and all of her friends had decided to join, too, until they finally get on campus and all of a sudden, none of her friends want to join BGP anymore.



This book was ok. There was a lot going on, some of which just seemed like too much. First there was all the hazing when Hayden was on line. I've never joined a sorority or wanted to, so maybe I just didn't understand, but why would she and all the girls want to put up with all of that? And then I think the character of Big Keisha Mean Machine was just way over the top, especially with the whole choking incident and then the peanut butter.



I thought some things were kinda unbelieveable, like how after making the sorority and the current sorority girls becoming suspended, Hayden automatically becomes the chapter president. Again, I don't really know how sororities work, but I don't think a new sophomore could just automatically be thrust into that kind of leadership role. I guess I'm too assume this is just a small-town based sorority. Then the whole thing with Trisha stealing the money and Bea was another over the top character.



As for Hayden and her crush, Creed, I really didn't feel any connection between them either. At the beginning of the story we're told they met each other last year and already liked each other. I would've liked to see their friendship/courtship progress a but before they were suddenly all bf/gf.



All in all, I give this a generous three stars as it did keep me mildly entertained and I do kinda want to read the next book in the series, which is about a character not even mentioned in this book, but that's a good thing because I didn't really like many of the characters. It was just a bit too all over the place with characters that didn't really seem true to life.



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Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in 2011, 2011 YA Reading Challenge