Fireworks

Every once in a while you read a book that just checks all the boxes.Characters who you fall in love with, even though they're not perfect. Check.A love story that doesn't consume the entirety of the story - plus the perfect book boyfriend. Check Check. (Holy crap do I love Alex)A setting that you can insert yourself in. Check. Don't let the 90s setting throw off the fact that this is very much a YA (but today's popstars are made on YouTube, not auditioned like back in my day). The 90s don't bog down the story; it's still fun to live in that era for a bit, though.This book was a ball of sweetness and is guaranteed to get you out of any slump. If you don't end up smiling, you're surely a monster. It's out now so I want to hear all your thoughts about it. That's all I'm going to say because I want to take us down memory lane for a bit.

Good book

This story is so completely unique - I loved the 90s setting and this window into the world of budding pop stars!

:)

I've loved all of Katie Cotugno's books, but this one was definitely the most fun. 90's girl groups and boy bands? Yes, please!!

3.5This book is pretty good. It’s one of those books that goes by incredibly fast and when you finish you realize that it was a nice little bit of fun for a time.Olivia is a talented young girl who’s been training to be a star her entire life. Her best friend, Dana, has always been on the sidelines keeping a level head while cheering Olivia on.One day Dana tags along with Olivia to Orlando so that Olivia can audition for Guy Monroe, a super-producer who is putting together a girl band. When Dana finds herself asked to sing she’s shocked. She’s only ever sang backup for Olivia. Next thing the girls know, they are both training to be pop stars, Dana finds herself falling for a member of a boyband, and the girls are living the dream, or so they think at first.As the days go by though, the grueling practices and the nonstop competition begin to take tolls on the girls. Things between Olivia and Dana begin to shift and change. There isn’t room at the top for two.This is a good easy read that is enjoyable enough. If you are looking for something that really embodies the 90’s and gives you a sense of nostalgia, well, this one didn’t do that for me. Aside from the ‘making the band’ type popstar thing there really wasn’t that big of a feel there. However, It’s still really fun and since there is that handpicked popstar group vibe you manage to get just a bit.I think this was fun though really predictable to a point. Not the type of predictable that makes you want to put the book down or roll your eyes or anything but there is definitely a level of predictability. Still, all that said, I would recommend giving this book a read to see what you think for yourself. You may love it.

Heads up, talking about specifics so there will be SPOILERS.This book wasn’t quiiiite what I thought it would be and that was okay but there were things that just didn’t quite fit. I liked Dana a lot but it never really felt right for her to be a part of this pop star world. I feel like it would have been a little different if there had been an expressed interest in singing before she took Olivia to her audition. It just felt so off of Dana to even enter the world of singing and show business without even wanting any part of it before she got there. Maybe that’s just me as a big choir nerd not understanding how you can jump into this without a passion for music or performing… I have no idea. Not staying that you HAVE to have experience in order to get into the music industry but trying to think about it as someone who was only a part of choir was overwhelming, not to mention voice lessons, dance lessons, and all of the show biz type stuff that you have to do. I don’t know… I just felt like Dana didn’t belong there, which I guess was the point, but it felt wrong to take that opportunity away from someone else just because she wanted to get out of her town. There are so many people who have that DREAM and while she may have been a natural performer, I don’t know… It just didn’t click for me and I actually was not rooting for her to make it in the industry. It really bothered me throughout the whole book and despite the fact that she was actually putting a great effort forth to grow and listen and perform… I still didn’t think that was the right place for her and I knew it the whole time.Aside from that, let’s not even tap into the fact that four girls are chosen for this girl group and out of four in the whole country, Dana is selected ALONG WITH her best friend, even when she sings Happy Birthday and… that’s it. No other auditioning process? No other callback? No tests to see if she even knows how to read music or if she’s a good dancer or if she doesn’t have an attitude, etc etc etc?? I 100% understand selecting someone for their star quality but people aren’t selected because of that alone. There has to be something else going there to make someone think they can turn that person into a star and that the work is going to be worth it. They flat-out didn’t see enough of Dana to even know that.The friend thing bothered me too. One of the reasons I loved Open Road Summer so much was the fact that the best friends were supportive and things didn’t get catty. One was the star, one was not, and it wasn’t a competition. I didn’t like that Olivia sort of abandoned her best friend for the other girls because they had more experience and were, for lack of a better word, cooler than Dana was. I didn’t like that this book pitted the two best friends against each other and then Olivia stabbed Dana in the back!!! Ugh UGH UGH. I couldn’t stand that.I also just had more hope that this was going to have some more 90s/early 2000s type feelings with all of those shows like Making the Band and Popstars. That was what I immediately went to when I heard the girls were going to audition for a girl group and there were some feelings of it there but I would have loved to get a little more of that feel. There wasn’t much of a time era feel aside from music references, which I would have loved to see more of because HELLO 90s, like the best time ever (ha)! There wasn’t that nostalgia that I had hoped for at all.There were other feelings I got from this book though, in so many ways. I actually felt a lot of Center Stage because of all of the industry moments and things we got to see that happen in closed-door meetings. People get cut from groups, deals are made, people get stabbed in the back, images are created. I also felt some That Thing You Do! and Selena with some of those musical moments about trying to get your music out there and be heard, so that was a fun feeling.The book was entertaining but I feel like I had a totally different image going in. FIREWORKS is a cute title for it but the cover is pretty misleading for what the book is about (despite the fact that I love it). Things were not really fun and friendly… they were kind of catty. And the fireworks were a small part of the book although related to kind of a big concept. I feel like it made the book seem so much lighter and easy-going and it was intense show business work!When it comes down to it, I enjoyed the read and it was quick but I can’t quite give it four stars because I didn’t feel like Dana ever fit into this world and it stuck out to me the whole time. I just felt like everyone was forcing her into that role even though SHE knew it wasn’t the right place for her either, even if she did have that star-quality. It made it hard for me to root for her to succeed because I didn’t feel like even she wanted it.

Book was delivered visibly damage. As seen in pic

Good price. Quick delivery.