Dramatically Ever After (Ever After #2) by Isabel Bandeira
ARC received from Netgalley for a fair review.
Publish date: May 6, 2017
“I became a character, bur the character was actually me. I’d been so busy pigeonholding myself into characters everyone else believed I was this week that I almost let go of full, three-dimensional Em who had dreams and potential. The Em who could be pretty amazing, in her own way.”
The kids from PCHS are back, and this time we are following Em, one of Phoebe from Bookishly Ever After‘s friends. Super confident and flirty Em has her chance at a scholarship that could help fund and convince her parents to let her pursue her theatrical dreams. Unfortunately, she is pitted up against the one boy in the school who she feels puts on more of a show than she does center stage.
This book was ridiculously cute. It had just the right amount of teenage uncertainty, teenage hormones, teenage maturity, and teenage heartbreak. In the first book, Phoebe drew from the characters in her books to give her confidence. In this book, Em uses her skills as an actress to befuddle the competition, and I just love how we all know that its going to definitely blow up in her face. Fake it till you make it is one of my mottoes, and in this case she literally does.
Em is such a ridiculous girl. Now, despite her feeling that she is pretty much a love guru, it turns out when it comes to her own situations she is as blind as a bat. It was agonizing (in a good way) to read her struggle through her relationship with her hot German boyfriend who no longer lives on the continent while juggling her flirting with the competition and keeping face against the other 100-so competitors. I loved that despite her lack of esteem in her skills, she still puts up a brave face and fights through her situations. She may make some pretty dumb decisions, and oh my gosh, the way she responds about Wil is just so….ughhh how is she so dumb?! But you know what? I know girls misunderstand the way she did all the time, and it was so frustrating (again, in a good way) to read her through it.
Kris. Dreamy Kris. Of course he has to be so freaking dreamy and all around perfect. Good looking, talented, kind, good Samaritan, and incredibly smart. Of course Em thinks he is a fake! At first, I was a little annoyed that he was so perfect too. And though I know as a reader that he is probably supposed to actually be all those things, I couldn’t help but side with ridiculous Em and her accusations, thinking, NO ONE IS THAT ANGELIC! I was happy to see that he did actually have faults and his own learning curve when it came to his own actions.
I loved how Isabel Bandeira worked in phrases/terms that incorporate the dramatic aspect.
“I needed Wil’s perfect leading man sotic support, the big silent shadow behind me always willing to hold me up.”
“We were both actors in this high school drama and our roles were already scripted for us.”
“Despite my natural cynicism, hope crept into me and I felt like breaking int a musical number like something out of thirties film.”
If you want a cute YA romance with just a dash of heartbreak and a spoonful of gushiness, then this is the book for you.
