Book Review: Semi-Charmed Life

Semi-Charmed Life by Nora Zelevansky

Format: e-arc
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 3rd July 2012
Pages: 336
Main Characters: Beatrice, Veruca, Ben
Date Started: 7th August 2012
Date Finished: 19th August 2012
Rating Given: ***

Blurb from Goodreads:

In Nora Zelevansky’s hilarious debut, Semi-Charmed Life, an Upper West Side naïf, Beatrice Bernstein, gets swept up in the seemingly magical life of socialite Veruca Pfeffernoose, while ghost writing her blog. Veruca’s glitteringly opulent world soon seduces Beatrice away from her own insular, arty family with a promise of fancy parties, travel outside Manhattan (for once) and one desperately cute guy. But when her new glitzy lifestyle starts to take on dark undertones, Beatrice has to decide who she is—once and for all. With her own magical touch, Zelevansky deftly explores the world of rarified Manhattan in this sparkling modern fairy tale of first love, finding one’s voice and growing up.

 I was sent an email from the publishers to see if I wanted to review this book which sounded like something that I haven't tried before and it sounded good so I thought I would give it a try. I am glad I did as it was a likable book just not a great book.

This cover I love and to be honest it would have sold me the book if I actually had seen it before I started reading it. I love that it looks like the cover has been drawn which is fitting to the actual story as there is a lot of art influence throughout the book. I do think the title should have been more bolder as the rest of the cover over powers it.

This is a debut novel from Nora Zelevansky which I think she has done a good job as I did find it funny and I think she will only get better with time. I did get confused to some of the things she had written as at the beginning I thought that it was set in the past but then when I went further into the book I found that it was actually set in the present time.

I did find it a bit too shallow for my liking as I was expecting a bit more from this book. When I got the email telling me about this book they said if I liked Gossip Girl then I would love this and yes I love Gossip Girl and yes this book was similar I just didn't love it as much because the characters was annoying. I did get a bit lost at times as I just didn't get what was happening even when I finished the book I felt lost. Some of the time when I picked the book up to read a bit more I didn't like it but there was a lot of times when I would pick it up and think it was a good book. There wasn't any action in any shape of form it just lacked that sparkle that I love to see in a contemporary book.

Beatrice was a bit annoying in the way that she just dropped her close friends for 'friends' that she had just met I just didn't get why she would do that. I also found her very naive and just let everyone walk all over her. Towards the end she did grow on me and found she started to act more like her age which was 21 instead of someone a lot younger. Veruca I didn't like throughout the book as she seemed like she just uses everyone but then there is a huge twist at the end which made me re-think her character. Ben I liked he was funny and I loved the interaction between him and Beatrice.

Overall a likable read but there was times when it was good and then other times when I just didn't get on with it. It was a light read with nothing too heavy going on.