20 March, 2015

#BookReview :: Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.
But Ani has a secret.
There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.
With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears. 
The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free? 

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At a glance, TifAni FaNelli seems to have it all – a very coveted job at a fashion magazine, a figure to die for, accessories that make other women see green and a huge engagement ring from a rich and successful fiancé. She is the epitome of a stylish and successful woman. But her dark past from her days at Bradley School is about to resurface through a documentary and her interview. What would be the reaction of the people currently in her life? Will it jeopardize everything she had worked so hard for or will she emerge only stronger on the other end?

I have to admit that I would not have picked this book up hadn’t there been constant comparison to Gillian Flynn’s books. All the chatter on Goodreads made me curious and I got approved on Netgalley for an ARC. Let me get this point right away – this book is nothing like Gillian Flynn’s books. Just because there are some dark elements in the book, it doesn’t mean that one has to compare it to Gillian Flynn.

The book has a VERY SLOW start and a very shallow one at that. We see TifAni at her best – worrying over what to wear and what to accessorize with. She comes across one of those shallow airheads whose world revolves around the superficial appearances that the fashion magazines, like the one she works for, endorses. It was very hard to not get frustrated with her character and give up on the book after just two-three chapters. It doesn’t end there… the book drags on for more than half of it and I actually put down the book quite a number of times to take a breather (To read other books in between) so that I could continue reading without throwing a tantrum or giving up on the book on the whole. The does pace pick up towards the end and the author drops in a quite a few twists in there. But for me most of it was quite predictable. I could guess almost everything except one point. And no I will not tell you what it was as that would reveal a huge spoiler for those who have not read it yet.

TifAni was a difficult protagonist to root for. For the most part I just wanted to shake her till she came out of the superficial world that she had built for herself and thinking that she would totally deserve it if her world came crumbling down when her dark past is revealed.  Though she finally somewhat redeems herself, I failed to connect with the protagonist. Club that with the slow pace for major chunk of the book, this was one difficult book to complete. But then again, I guess giving TifAni a different personality would not really suit the plotline either. However, the author has used very simple language that is easy to get into and a very detailed world building style. 

This is one of those books that I would not encourage anyone to read nor would I discourage anyone from picking it up. It is up to you guys to decide if you would like to read this or not.


Review Copy received via Netgalley

1 comment:

  1. It seems like a regular story by the preface, I mean I have seen these kinds of stories before too.. Thanks for the review..

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