Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Mini-Review: Piece of My Heart by Lynn Madelenna Menna

Piece of My HeartAuthor: Lynn Madelenna Menna
Genre:  Contemporary
Pages: 239
Published: June 18th, 2013
Publisher: Merit Press
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Source:  I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

"Still in high school, Marisol Reyes gets the chance of a lifetime to be a real singer, and she leaps at it. After all, this is the dream she held on to, all the days and nights she spent growing up on means streets of East Harlem. Marisol never gave in--no matter what her boyfriend or her best friend had to say. Who cares if only one in a hundred pretty, talented girls make it? She will be the one. In her rush to fame, Marisol tramples on the heart of her loyal best friend, and Julian, the boy she loves. But will it be worth it?
One night at a private gig in the Hamptons, the little Latino girl with the big voice from East Harlem gets a severe reality check. A famous rapper who claims to be interested in her talents turns out to be interested in something else, threatening not only Marisol's dreams but her body and soul. Will the realities of the gritty New York music scene put out the stars in Marisol's eyes forever?"~Goodreads

I was really disappointed with this book.  I was hoping for something gritty and exciting but instead the story was pretty flat and the characters left a lot to be desired.  Menna had such a great opportunity with Marisol.  Here's a girl with big dreams and lots of talent, it would have been fun to watch her meteoric rise to stardom or at the very least her development as a person.  Unfortunately, Mari was a pretty one-dimensional character.  She is painfully naive, totally oblivious to anyone else's feelings and to top it all off whenever someone has a problem with her she assumes it's because they're jealous.  Lovely.  I couldn't warm up to her character at all.  Even at the end of the book when everything is wrapping up and Mari realizes how many people have been using her she continues to fall into the arms of the first loser who comes along.  I may sound like I'm being harsh but I was just so disappointed in this book.  The only character that was at all likable was Tati.  She at least seemed like she had some conviction was an interesting character.  Unfortunately her story never really fully developed and she suffered from some of the same downfalls as Mari.  I wish I could have loved this book, I wanted to love this book.  In the end there just wasn't enough to pull me into the story and the characters were infuriating.  I just can't recommend this one.

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