** spoiler alert ** The rating of 3 stars is actually a 2.5 star rating
We Are The Goldens by Dana Reinhardt explores the relationship between Nell, who just started her Freshman year in high school and her older sister Layla, who is now a Junior at the same school. The two sisters have always been close, so close in fact, that when Nell was younger she thought her name was "Nellayla". Now, a secret Layla is hiding from Nell, threatens to ruin their close sisterhood.
The writing style of Reinhardt took sometime for me to get used to, but when I did, I really liked it. However, the low rating for this book has nothing to do with writing style.
In the book, there is mention of the Creed brothers who passed away less then a year apart from each other while teenagers. Nell and Layla never really hung out with the Creed brothers, other than going to their parents annual Christmas party and seeing them a few other times a year which makes it really strange that Nell sees the dead brothers and talks to them like they are actually there.
The ending was also an issue. After all that build up about what Nell is going to do and how the parents will react, it ends with Nell calling a family meeting and that's it...no reaction from the parents, no finding out what consequences Mr. B gets and most importantly, we don't know if Nell and Layla's relationship goes back the way it was before everything happened, or if it has been broken beyond repair.
I saw pretty quickly what the story was going to be about and didn't feel connected to the characters at all, which left me feeling empty at the end.
Overall, it was an OK book, with a lot of flaws that if fixed, would make the book really enjoyable.
*Book was borrowed from local library
We Are The Goldens by Dana Reinhardt explores the relationship between Nell, who just started her Freshman year in high school and her older sister Layla, who is now a Junior at the same school. The two sisters have always been close, so close in fact, that when Nell was younger she thought her name was "Nellayla". Now, a secret Layla is hiding from Nell, threatens to ruin their close sisterhood.
The writing style of Reinhardt took sometime for me to get used to, but when I did, I really liked it. However, the low rating for this book has nothing to do with writing style.
In the book, there is mention of the Creed brothers who passed away less then a year apart from each other while teenagers. Nell and Layla never really hung out with the Creed brothers, other than going to their parents annual Christmas party and seeing them a few other times a year which makes it really strange that Nell sees the dead brothers and talks to them like they are actually there.
The ending was also an issue. After all that build up about what Nell is going to do and how the parents will react, it ends with Nell calling a family meeting and that's it...no reaction from the parents, no finding out what consequences Mr. B gets and most importantly, we don't know if Nell and Layla's relationship goes back the way it was before everything happened, or if it has been broken beyond repair.
I saw pretty quickly what the story was going to be about and didn't feel connected to the characters at all, which left me feeling empty at the end.
Overall, it was an OK book, with a lot of flaws that if fixed, would make the book really enjoyable.
*Book was borrowed from local library