Brilliant

Brilliant by Rachel Vail
HarperTeen, 2010
249 pages
YA; Contemporary
2/5 stars
3rd in Trilogy

See review of Gorgeous from early days of the blog.

Source: Library

Summary: The conclusion to the Avery sisters trilogy, focusing on eldest sister Quinn and her learning to let go and accept their new life.

Thoughts: I enjoyed the first two books of this series so I was thrilled to pick this up, especially because I love the cover.  I want those shoes even though I don't think I own a dress to go with them.

The first problem was that I couldn't really remember either of the first two books but I figured that was okay because they can be read as stand-alone books. The next problem was that I found Quinn to be so immature despite being the eldest of the daughters.  She's so invested in being "perfect" and "brilliant" that when she realizes that doing that is impossible, she breaks down and annoyed me to no end.

Second was her crush on Oliver, her piano teacher who was apparently nineteen despite having taken a year off before his junior of college.  I think that was made as well as her being a junior despite being almost 17 (about a month) so that it was less creepy.  Instead I found it inaccurate and unlikely-most of my classmates were definitely 16 for the majority of their junior year of high school and twenty for their junior year of college.  Their age difference, while not that big if they were 24 and 26, is a big deal for people who are still trying to find themselves.

 I really wanted more information about what her mother did at her job that caused them to lose so much but I didn't feel like there was much time spent on that because I had to read Quinn be whiny and annoying.  I also didn't like the descriptions of the sisters because I'm sure that I loved them when I read their respective books.  To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why I bothered finishing the book because it was not good.  The first two were but this was a crappy conclusion.

Overall: Disappointed.

Cover: I love this cover; the shoes are gorgeous and the colors work so well together.  In fact all of the covers are absolutely beautiful.

Gorgeous

Gorgeous by Rachel Vail

Summary: The second book in a trilogy dealing with the Avery sisters, whose mother, the breadwinner, has just lost her job affecting them in a variety of ways. This book is about the middle daughter Allison who has always felt herself to be the least pretty and least valued of the family. She ends up selling her cell to the devil for a chance at gorgeousness.

I know that I read Lucky, the first book, but I didn't really remember it. That is okay; these books can be read in any order as they cover the same events from the different perspectives [It looks like the third book will be called Brilliant and is due out in May.] I have to say that I love all three covers for this trilogy-they're...gorgeous!

I mostly liked Allison (especially her obsession with the slightly obscure historical figure Gouverneur Morris) and I really liked her new best friend Roxie Green. But the obsession with being gorgeous annoyed me. I know that it's the plot of the book and obviously she will talk about it a lot but it annoyed me especially because it was totally obvious to me that she really was pretty but just couldn't see it. The story itself is pretty predictable but the writing style is very engaging. I've enjoyed the series and am eager for the third.

Overall: 4 out of 5 for cute story although slightly annoying narrator.