Review Detail

Reader reviewed by TheBookworm

Clumsy and Unfocused

the fruit of my lipstick: all about us book two by Shelley Adina*
3 ½ out of 5 stars

Gillian Chang is back at Spencer Academy Boarding School in San Francisco for her second term. The joy of meeting her friends again helps her forget the immense stress she is under to be perfect for awhile.

What can be better than being surrounded by Christian friends? Having a Christian boyfriend. Lucas Hayes, brilliant at physics, member of their prayer group, and hot. Who wouldnt fall for him? The longer they are in a relationship, the more Gillian gets knocked down by Lucas. She is being supportive, thinking of him before herself, and even trying to help him study. But all she gets in return are snobbish remarks and comments about how beautiful Vanessa is. A girl, even as thick-skinned as Gillian, can only take so much.

Gillian is becoming more and more stressed. Her parents expect high grades, if not perfection on her exams, her boyfriend is hurting her, she is constantly in a fight with her friends, and now the whole junior class is in danger of failing all the exams because someone is selling the answers. While Gillian is trying to discover the culprit, she herself is accused. Will Gillian be able to defeat all her personal demons, ace the exams, fix broken relationships, and hold unto the one thing that matters most, her faith?

I had to create a whole new number grade for this book, 3 ½ stars. The reason being the beginning of the book scored 3 and the ending scored 4. The beginning was very confusing. The storyline was all over the place and didnt stay focused on one topic long enough to be understood. I havent read the first book in this series, so in many places I was at a total lost.

I just couldnt believe that Gillian could like someone like Lucas Hayes. It was totally obvious from the first page that he was a jerk. Her liking him then dating him just made me not like her. Then the way she treated her friends just backed up my opinion of her.

If there wasnt some really good minor characters, I doubt I would even rate this book this high. The only characters I liked were Jeremy and Shani. And unfortunately, they only had a few lines, but there actions are what stood out.

The fruit of my lipstick was clumsy, unfocused, and with a majority of unlikable characters.

Date Reviewed: September 7th, 2008

*This book was provided by Book Divas.