I was going through my posts, and I realized that I had these two in my draft folder. I was almost certain I’d published them, and it turned out I hadn’t! So here are those reviews. They were written some time ago (I’m not sure exactly when I actually did write them) but I think they still deserved to be seen and read. So here they are, bunched together as a double treat!

by Melissa Walker

Violet is a wallflower. She is one of those people who hang around on the sidelines. Her secret wish is to be part of Bee’s Knees, the popular girl group at school. She hates her tallness, which makes her noticeably different. But when a Tryst agent tells her she could be the next Kate Moss, and Violet goes to New York to find out what it’s about, her life changes –but for better, or for worse?

The story about a girl who becomes a supermodel, just when she thinks she’s not at all special. Who hasn’t, even for only a few weeks, years ago, wished that she could be discovered? Maybe not as a model; maybe as an actress, but anyway, a celebrity, someone famous. Who hasn’t wished that she could suddenly become famous, rich, and admired, on movies or TV shows or runways?

For those of you who have, Violet is that dream, put into reality. But it also poses questions we never consider–what about press and agents? What about pressure? What about drugs and partying, and hypocrisy?

This book brought up a lot of unasked questions, most notably, Is fame worth all this? Should I endure it? Or should I give up? Who’s real? Who’s not? Who should I trust?

It’s not a light book. But modeling isn’t a light business. And while we condemn celebrities for bad behavior, we rarely ask why they do the things they do. Violet is a real, insecure girl, stuck inside the world of modeling, full of promises and full of lies.

I really enjoyed this book. I found myself pondering these questions along with Violet. This is a life I never got to live, and in this book, I felt like I was finally having a chance to. Violet’s real, and she’s honest, but more than that? She’s a real person. And that’s why this book is so good.

 ——-

Violet Greenfield is back. With a mention of Brazil, her agent, Angela, has lured her back into the modeling world. In at once, it seems to good to be true: there’s Veronica, her rival-turned-friend who gives good advice; there’s Paulo, the designer who seems to have fallen in love with Violet; and best of all, she’s still famous. People love her. Turns out, it is too good to be true.

I read this book as quickly as the first, which means really quickly. But as I was sitting down to write this review, I realized exactly why I liked these books so much. They show Violet as a real person: a real, flawed person. I am annoyed at her sometimes. She does make mistakes that seem so obviously stupid to us. She doesn’t notice things that seem obvious. She ignores the obvious. She doesn’t make the choices I think are right.

But that’s what makes her real. Real people make mistakes. That’s why there are so many people today on the news, having been caught with drugs or being drunk.

And what makes Violet different? She learns. She grows. Sometimes she’ll make mistakes more than once, but after she realizes she does her best not to do it again. She does her best. And really, that’s the best we can hope for. Violet is encouraging as a girl discovering herself.

I really like the Violet series because of this. It’s predictable, yet it’s not predictable in an obnoxious way. It’s the sort of book that makes you hang on, rooting for the main character even when you know she’s making a mistake.