Author: Pamela Srey
Published: 2012
Number of Pages: 239
My Rating: 5/5 (for YA fans)
Summary from GoodReads.com:
Seventeen year old Bianca Grey had a not so usual teenage life. Adopted with an
abusive foster mother and unpopular at Philadelphia High School, Bianca found
peace with her artistic talents. Pete Carrara Jr., had a different life.
He was popular in school, musically talented with good looks and brains. Pete
had the ideal perfect life with the perfect family and friends. Love had
never crossed his mind until one day when he ran into Bianca. That very day, he
thought love to be very possible.
Bianca was guarded and had never let anyone get close to
her. No one knew she was adopted, not even the school. The more Pete got to
know her, the more he fell in love with her. Bianca was not so certain on how
much Pete should know about her personal life but the more she learned about
Pete, the more she cared for him. With him, her complicated life wasn't so
complicated anymore.
Their young romance blossomed through the difficulty of a drama filled
high school and a series of mysterious killings in the city. But just when Pete
thought that things were perfect with Bianca, her past surfaced. Can their
love overcome the scariest reality out there, the so called life?
Wow. All I can say about this
book is- When does the next one come out?!
I was
asked to review this book by Pamela Srey and at first I wasn't too sure about
it. The plot seemed very interesting, yes, but I am not a die-hard fan of Young
Adult romances and so I started reading it with the intention of stopping if it
wasn't my cup of tea. Let me tell you, I was completely wrong. This book does have teenage love elements in it,
but it is so much more than that.
Melodies is a YA novel about a
seventeen-year-old Bianca Grey. She has been through many awful things in her
life that cause her to not only push others away from her, but that also cause
her to feel like she has no worth. I enjoyed Bianca’s character so much as she
seemed like a real teenager. Yes, she was smart and artsy, but she was also a
hard worker that was extremely independent. I loved that she didn’t need to
rely on anyone else and she definitely wasn’t your typical teenage girl
damsel-in-distress. In her mind, she couldn’t wait to get out of high school
away from the stupid girl drama and make something of herself, until she met
Pete.
Pete Cararra
was another amazing character that truly felt real. He was too good to be true,
but it wasn’t in an unrealistic way. Pete is one of the most popular guys in
school and has a large group of friends along with girls that are constantly
swooning over him. He isn’t really interested in any of them, preferring
college girls to the immature high school ones, until he meets Bianca. While
their romance at first seemed like it might be something typical of A Walk to Remember, it turned out to bloom
in a completely tangible way that often gave me butterflies and would cause me
to grin like a huge idiot. His true personality began to shine through and I was
able to picture him as so much more than just a pretty face. Pete has many
great qualities that I can imagine would take most teenage guys a little time
before they would let you see them.
As
I mentioned earlier, this book was way more than a love story between an artist
and a musician; there were serious and suspenseful parts to the plot, as well.
As mentioned in the summary, Bianca is dealing with abuse, neglect, and an
awful family situation that she is too embarrassed to reveal to anyone. Srey
does a great job making these more intense scenes very vivid and lets you
really see what Bianca is up against. Srey also addresses bullying and girl
drama, which I felt was sadly pretty typical of the types of things girls might
have to deal with in high school these days.
The
one thing about this book that was disappointing was that it ended. I could not
get enough of Bianca, Pete, and their friends and families and I was so sad
when I got to the last page. I absolutely have to find out what happens to
everyone and I will be waiting very impatiently for the second installment in
the series.
Overall,
I cannot stop talking about this book. If you like YA, it is a MUST read. I
felt it gave me the same feelings as Colleen Hoover’s Slammed and that was a book I loved so much that I immediately read
it again as soon as I finished. Pamela Srey has done an amazing job creating
characters that you care about and that make you feel all their emotions while
you read. I promise you, if you check this book out, you will be dying to find
out what happens to Pete and Bianca, too.
-Busy Brunette
Labels: Fiction, Rating 5