Jan Blazanin
Autor de Fairest of Them All
Sobre El Autor
Créditos de la imagen: Timeless Images
Obras de Jan Blazanin
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre canónico
- Blazanin, Jan
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 19??-10-03
- Género
- female
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugares de residencia
- Waukee, Iowa, USA
- Educación
- Drake University (MST)
- Ocupaciones
- Writing teacher
Miembros
Reseñas
Prepare yourself for the ultimate summer à la Aspen and Laurel because they certainly have quite a full plate of backfired plans going on! A & L do summer was not what I had expected from the synopsis. I thought there would be a little more city-vs-country girl dynamics going on – and perhaps a little fun scheming as finding boyfriends go. Instead Aspen and Laurel had more Lucy/Ethel hilarities – which I thoroughly enjoyed!
A & L do summer is a wholesome slice of warm apple crumble topped with a refreshing scoop of vanilla ice cream. Doesn’t that sound like trouble – a delightful sort of trouble? These girls get into the strangest of predicaments – as they hop out of the pig-herding fiasco, they fall right into drive-thru shenanigans and a daring chicken rescue operation! I admit, it sounds like too unbelievable to happen to these girls – but they pull it off with such charm that you cannot help but believe that they are invincible!
If you need a break from the heavy-duty YA reads and just want a good chuckle to brighten your day, I think you can do no wrong with A & L do summer ! Definitely a win for fans of I LOVE LUCY!… (más)
A & L do summer is a wholesome slice of warm apple crumble topped with a refreshing scoop of vanilla ice cream. Doesn’t that sound like trouble – a delightful sort of trouble? These girls get into the strangest of predicaments – as they hop out of the pig-herding fiasco, they fall right into drive-thru shenanigans and a daring chicken rescue operation! I admit, it sounds like too unbelievable to happen to these girls – but they pull it off with such charm that you cannot help but believe that they are invincible!
If you need a break from the heavy-duty YA reads and just want a good chuckle to brighten your day, I think you can do no wrong with A & L do summer ! Definitely a win for fans of I LOVE LUCY!… (más)
Fairest of them all is a book that I thought that I would really like, because I read a lot of books about issues and illnesses. Unfortunately, it fell pretty short of what I was expecting.
I had a lot of issues with Oribella, I know that she is considered remarkably unspoiled when it comes to models, but her character transformation took too long into the book for me to ever really be invested in her and *like* her. I do pity her, being on the outside, and being on the receiving end of a horrible thing like losing your hair when looks are so important to your passion.
The redeeming thing that kept me reading this book was Phil. She is an amazing character, bringing out the good that is buried within Ori. She has such wisdom and character.… (más)
I had a lot of issues with Oribella, I know that she is considered remarkably unspoiled when it comes to models, but her character transformation took too long into the book for me to ever really be invested in her and *like* her. I do pity her, being on the outside, and being on the receiving end of a horrible thing like losing your hair when looks are so important to your passion.
The redeeming thing that kept me reading this book was Phil. She is an amazing character, bringing out the good that is buried within Ori. She has such wisdom and character.… (más)
Oribella Bettencourt has the world at her feet. She's won the Crowning Glory pageant title, due in part to her lustrous blonde mane of hair, and has just snagged a role in an upcoming movie opposite a hot young star. Sure, she doesn't really have any friends at school, but that's okay - she has her mother, a frustrated beauty queen herself, and she has her brilliant pageant and acting career. She doesn't need anything, or anyone, else. At least, that's what she tells herself. Then clumps of her beautiful blonde hair start falling out every time she brushes. Or showers. Or does just about anything. The horrifying word comes down: she has alopecia, a rare condition resulting in hair loss. She loses her movie role. The Crowning Glory title is taken away from her. And her mother can barely bear to look at her. Now, outcast and alone, all Oribella has is herself - and that simply isn't enough. When, to her surprise, she begins to develop an unlikely friendship with a tomboy classmate, she realizes that for the first time in her life she may just figure out who Oribella Bettencourt really is without her crown - and what truly matters in the end. From Amazon UK
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book! It's not what I was expecting at all, but it was fantastic! I am just so, so glad I got to read this book! It has some really important things to say!
Oribella is blonde and beautiful. She's a model, an actress, a dancer, and a has won several beauty pagents. So this means she's a stuck up, nasty queen bee who rules the school, right? Wrong! Ori is socially awkward, she has no friends, and has barely a minute to herself; when she's not at school she's going to modelling gigs, or dance classes, or preparing for the beauty bagent or her audition for an upcoming movie role for a modern day princess. This girl doesn't stop! It's something I would have thought was suffocating and a lot of pressure, but Ori thrives on it! And, being inside her head, you can see she's a nice girl - yet she's bullied.
So there are our first stereotypes out the window. This beautiful girl is good and nice, isn't scared of hard work, but isn't good at making friends, and bullied for what people perceive about her - like we just did. The only person she has is her mother.
'At Highland High I'm a disease nobody wants to catch. The girls hate me, the guys avoid me, and the teachers think I have a single digit IQ. It's hard to concentrate on my studies in the face of so much blind adoration.' (p15)
People look at her, make these assumptions about her, or smother her in compliments - yet it's wonderful to see that this beautiful girl isn't completely shallow either:
'Most people act like beuty is something I've accomplished. But's no different from congratulating me for having eyebrows or a nose. I'd rather be praised for mastering a tricky dance step or earning a C - if that's possible - in math.' (p13)
But then Ori's world gets turned upside down when she starts suffering from alopecia - a condition which causes your hair to fall out. The part she got in the movie is taken away from her, her agent dumps her which means no more modelling or acting parts, she can't face going to her dance classes with the hair the way it is, and her mother stops talking to her. She loses everything. And the bullying gets worse.
'"Just don't expect anyone to feel sorry for you - because they won't. The queen fell off her pedestal, and the peasants are cheering."' (p154)
But she gains the world. I won't spoil the story, but in a way, Ori getting alopecia is the best thing that could happen to her. When she finally snaps, and rants at Phil (short for Philomena), a jock on the girls volley ball team and daughter of Ori's ex-agent, she finds someone who will listen, and who starts to understand. Through this one friend, so many other things open up to her. She experiences more, she does more, she realises more. And it's wonderful to witness this transformation.
Is there a happy ending? It really depends on what you would consider to be a happy ending for someone like Ori, but I believe there is. Fairest of Them All is such an uplifting and positve book, and I couldn't recommend it enough! It's absolutely brilliant, and so great to see that the "negative" causes the "positive" this time round. Such a fantastic novel, everyone should give it a read!
From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog… (más)
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book! It's not what I was expecting at all, but it was fantastic! I am just so, so glad I got to read this book! It has some really important things to say!
Oribella is blonde and beautiful. She's a model, an actress, a dancer, and a has won several beauty pagents. So this means she's a stuck up, nasty queen bee who rules the school, right? Wrong! Ori is socially awkward, she has no friends, and has barely a minute to herself; when she's not at school she's going to modelling gigs, or dance classes, or preparing for the beauty bagent or her audition for an upcoming movie role for a modern day princess. This girl doesn't stop! It's something I would have thought was suffocating and a lot of pressure, but Ori thrives on it! And, being inside her head, you can see she's a nice girl - yet she's bullied.
So there are our first stereotypes out the window. This beautiful girl is good and nice, isn't scared of hard work, but isn't good at making friends, and bullied for what people perceive about her - like we just did. The only person she has is her mother.
'At Highland High I'm a disease nobody wants to catch. The girls hate me, the guys avoid me, and the teachers think I have a single digit IQ. It's hard to concentrate on my studies in the face of so much blind adoration.' (p15)
People look at her, make these assumptions about her, or smother her in compliments - yet it's wonderful to see that this beautiful girl isn't completely shallow either:
'Most people act like beuty is something I've accomplished. But's no different from congratulating me for having eyebrows or a nose. I'd rather be praised for mastering a tricky dance step or earning a C - if that's possible - in math.' (p13)
But then Ori's world gets turned upside down when she starts suffering from alopecia - a condition which causes your hair to fall out. The part she got in the movie is taken away from her, her agent dumps her which means no more modelling or acting parts, she can't face going to her dance classes with the hair the way it is, and her mother stops talking to her. She loses everything. And the bullying gets worse.
'"Just don't expect anyone to feel sorry for you - because they won't. The queen fell off her pedestal, and the peasants are cheering."' (p154)
But she gains the world. I won't spoil the story, but in a way, Ori getting alopecia is the best thing that could happen to her. When she finally snaps, and rants at Phil (short for Philomena), a jock on the girls volley ball team and daughter of Ori's ex-agent, she finds someone who will listen, and who starts to understand. Through this one friend, so many other things open up to her. She experiences more, she does more, she realises more. And it's wonderful to witness this transformation.
Is there a happy ending? It really depends on what you would consider to be a happy ending for someone like Ori, but I believe there is. Fairest of Them All is such an uplifting and positve book, and I couldn't recommend it enough! It's absolutely brilliant, and so great to see that the "negative" causes the "positive" this time round. Such a fantastic novel, everyone should give it a read!
From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog… (más)
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 2
- Miembros
- 63
- Popularidad
- #268,028
- Valoración
- 3.7
- Reseñas
- 8
- ISBNs
- 4
From pigs being accidentally set loose in a school to falling in pet-love with a chicken scheduled to be served up for dinner, this book delivers the originality.
Laurel is new to small town Iowa, but has become close with a native named Aspen. Aspen is determined to score them both spots in the popular crowd – which, in turn, should score them both boyfriends. But, as we know, these things never go according to plan. As they navigate through after-school jobs and drunken high school parties, disaster and embarrassment follow them everywhere. Also: things actually take a pretty sinister turn. You’ll be surprised by the level of violence they accidentally find themselves exposed to. I certainly was!
Anyway – bottom line. I loved Lauren, Aspen and all their crazy plans. This book was so much fun to read, I found myself laughing constantly. There isn’t a lot of plot or character development, and it definitely isn’t the kind of book you’ll be remembering a long time after finishing it. What it does deliver is a good time, and if you’re in the mood to laugh I definitely recommend dedicating a couple of hours to this one!… (más)