Reviews

Masquerade by Jessica Burkhart

mehsi's review

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4.0

-1 star for the ending. Sorry, but what the hell is up with that. I won't spoil anything of course, but seriously, was that needed? Was it needed to add that level of drama to such an amazing, and also fun, book? Though, then again, knowing the levels of dramarama in this series I guess the answer is yes. :| I am kind of worried about book 17 and 18 now though, guess I will have to buy them soon so I can find out what will happen.

The rest of the book was amazing, though now that I think of it, the ending could have been avoided. It was mostly Lauren's fault to begin with, though also that guy's fault. A bit of both. Arghhh, it ruined the party for me. :(

Ok, ok, no more rants about the ending, let me talk about the rest of the book (which was amazing).
For the first time ever we have no more Riley! *insert me dancing a victory dance* Ding Dong The Bitch is Gone. Finally, and I have to say that the books only got better now that little miss Bleh is gone and not ruining everyone's lives. She was truly the worst character yet (next to Heather from book 1 (no clue if Heather will get worse/better, since I only read book 1)), and so I am delighted that she is gone. I hope she won't come back in the last 2 books, though I guess we will never know until the end. I will be crossing my fingers and hoping really hard that there won't be any Riley to ruin stuff again.

I loved the party, I loved the build-up to it and Lauren's reaction to the party was just adorable. How she tried to sneak in conversations, or tried to sneak up on people to read stuff, it was cute. She just couldn't wait and was so excited.
The party itself, wow, those girls must be loaded. Sure, they could have easily gotten cheap stuff, but given what they bought, and the times they said it was pretty expensive, I am guessing they went full out. It feels a bit weird, if I have to be honest. I know they are at a superfancy boarding school, have horses (which must be expensive too), so it was expected that the parents are probably pretty rich, but it still surprises me.

I kind of missed Drew in this book. We have several very sweet and romantic scenes, but it felt like it was less instead of more, as what one would expect.

The ages of the girls and boys? It keeps being a surprise that these are 12/13 year old characters. I just don't believe a word of that. They are actively dating boys (or girls), they wear loads of make-up, they act way older, and several other things. I just see them as 15/16ish, because that is the age I would expect this all to happen. So Happy Birthday Lauren, with your sweet 16! :)

There is also quite a bit of horse action in here and I just loved reading about it. Whisper is adorable and Lauren and Whisper are such a good team.

All in all, this was a good book, though the ending, and how a certain boy doesn't get a certain hint, was a bit annoying. Other than that, I would recommend this one, and for me? I am going to buy 17 and 18 soon, as I want to know what kind of dramarama we are getting.

Review first posted at: http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

olivianoack's review

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3.0

While I was reading through Sasha's books, I found myself often annoyed with her and how she always ruins her friendships, the drama with Jasmine and Julia was petty and stupid. I loved the competitive drama regarding the horse riding teams and and competitions who was winning classes. That stuff was interesting to me. I was relieved when I finished Sasha's books and I was ready to move onto some new drama.
Yet here we are with Lauren, and I don't really like the drama either. She barely spends any time riding in the books at all (there isn't even a horse on this cover- I think she only went riding twice and it was just for lessons). Also, so much of Lauren's drama involves her old friends and people from her home life, which is fine I guess and realistic, but it's not as interesting when it could be with Canterwood Crest. Riley was a super annoying girl, but at least she made conflict. Now that she's gone and Lauren's gotten over her fear of competition, I don't even know what the conflict is. There actually wasn't really conflict in this book because the whole thing is about Khloe planning Lauren's birthday party, which is way too cool for how old they are.
Also, Taylor's Dad is unreal. Like, I get the stereotype of controlling father's trying to force their son into the business, but he's literally only twelve years old. Let the boy live a little.
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