Author: Michelle Madow
Publication Date: February 25th 2014 (March 7th UK)
~A proof copy was provided by Harlequin Teen/ Mira Ink in exchange for an honest review~
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three sisters with Big secrets.
Get ready to meet...SAVANNAH. COURTNEY. PEYTON.
The Diamond sisters never knew their father and never could catch a break. But their luck is about to change when they find out the secret identity of their long-lost dad – a billionaire Las Vegas hotel owner who wants them to come and live in a gorgeous penthouse suite.
Suddenly they have access to all that their dad’s money can provide, meaning it should be easier than ever to fit right in. But in a town full of secrets and illusions, fitting in is nothing compared with finding out the truth about their past.
Get ready to meet...SAVANNAH. COURTNEY. PEYTON.
The Diamond sisters never knew their father and never could catch a break. But their luck is about to change when they find out the secret identity of their long-lost dad – a billionaire Las Vegas hotel owner who wants them to come and live in a gorgeous penthouse suite.
Suddenly they have access to all that their dad’s money can provide, meaning it should be easier than ever to fit right in. But in a town full of secrets and illusions, fitting in is nothing compared with finding out the truth about their past.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Secret Diamond Sisters, on one hand I really liked you.
You were something new, based in a setting I hadn't read before, so Vegas
sounds like a ton of fun and I really liked a few of the characters, and I also
wanted to put a few of the rest of the
characters in their place. Including two of the leads. One I just wanted to
shake to wake her up to the obvious, but other than that, you were enjoyable.
It kind of ran like a The Hills type of show, only in Vegas. Is there already a
reality TV show set in Vegas? If there's not, there should be.
I'm not saying I didn't like it, but you have to be in the right mood to read something like it, I mean, I binge watched The Hills, when I wanted something full of drama and fun to watch, basically it's my guilty pleasure. And it that way, The Secret Diamond Sisters succeeded.
I'm not saying I didn't like it, but you have to be in the right mood to read something like it, I mean, I binge watched The Hills, when I wanted something full of drama and fun to watch, basically it's my guilty pleasure. And it that way, The Secret Diamond Sisters succeeded.
The Secret Diamond Sisters started off with a bang and a
fast pace, the sisters lives change dramatically while they're shipped off to
Vegas while their mother's been admitted to Rehab for alcoholism, once they get
to Vegas however, that's when it unfortunately starts to slow down, when I
thought it would've picked up. A huge chunk of the book takes up in a day. And
a fast happening kind of day.
Savannah makes out with a guy she's known for five minutes,
and he tries to get her to have sex with him. Once she says no, and he's
disappointed, she thinks she should've just gone along with it. I have so many issues with that. Because it's
not okay, and having Savannah think that is not a good example for the age
group it's aimed at. On one hand, it was good to show that it is okay to say no, but her reaction to
it kind of annoyed me and ruined it. But on the other, Savannah's young, and so
much as happened in little time with no time to adjust to this sudden life's
she's thrown into, whether she thinks she's ready for it or not. She had a lot
of learning to do, but by the end she is a
stronger character.
Then there's Peyton, who actually sleeps with the guy she's
known for five minutes. I'm still on the fence with her, while there seems to
be sister comradely with Savannah and Courtney, Peyton feels like she's more on
the side. Yes, she's really not like her sisters at all, but there's this one
part that where she should have done
something and told Courtney, but she didn't, and took on a bet herself that
involved her own sister.
I have to say Courtney was my favourite, I guess I related
to her a lot more, because she's a book person, she's sensible, she's
headstrong and not taken in. She's not stupid, she suddenly has all this money
from a father she doesn't know and she
doesn't want to use it. And when she does, it's sparingly, she doesn't want
money that she hasn't earned herself, because that's the way she had to grow
up.
The Secret Diamond Sisters also involves some serious
issues, but the thing is, while it could've been more heavier with that, it
kind of missed the mark, and there was no weight behind it, or the characters
to make them believable and real. I didn't feel any emotion from them at times,
even though we're being told it. And maybe that's the problem. While I did feel
a connection to Courtney, since I'm more like her in a way, and even the naivety
of Savannah, because she is young, and you can remember feeling exactly like
that, but only so much of it before it becomes annoying at how naive she
actually is. It takes me a while to warm up to characters, and they have the
potential to become those great characters.
There's not much of a plot happening yet, I can see the foundation
set, and a few hints and pieces left open, and possibly some twists, but it
didn't go much further in this one, which being the first in a series in a
contemporary, I'm okay with.
The best part for me though is the setting, I've never been
to Vegas, and it was fun to be there in a way, and the way Michelle Madow
paints the background makes you feel like you're there, and is vividly seen,
and it shows the extensive knowledge she has of the place, which, I'm totally
jealous of. ;)
The Secret Diamond Sisters, though I have some issues for
it, was overall enjoyable and fun, flirty type of book that is a guilty
pleasure, and I can't wait to see what the next reveals.
Rating: 4/5
