Book Review: Finlay Donovan Rolls The Dice (Finlay Donovan, #4) by Elle Cosimano

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Finlay Donovan Rolls The Dice (Finlay Donovan, #4)  by Elle Cosimano opens with Finlay Donovan and her nanny, Vero, planning a trip to Atlantic City to pay off some debts, find Javi, and retrieve a stolen car.  But first, they come up with a cover story that backfires miserably.  Finlay and Vero have to be clever and sneaky to accomplish what they set out to do, but will they have to come clean? Thank you, NetGalley, for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Finlay Donovan Rolls The Dice (Finlay Donovan, #4) by Elle Cosimano.  This is one of the books I was most excited about being able to read before it was in stores.  I received the eBook for free in exchange for my honest review. The fourth installment picks up where the last book ended and ties up the loose ends from Finlay Donovan Knocks Them Dead (Finlay Donovan, #3)  . . . so much so that I thought that this was going to be the last book in the series.  However, Finlay Donovan Rolls The Dice ends up having a couple of cliffhangers,
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Book Review: The Popularity Plan (Sweet Dreams, # 2) by Rosemary Vernon

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sweet dreams, # 2
During a school book fair in middle school, I stumbled upon a teen romance series called Sweet Dreams. Each book in the series is actually a stand alone book. In addition, each book in the series is written by a different author with many of the authors penning several throughout the years.  I believe the first book I picked up was The Golden Girl (Sweet Dreams, # 169) by Jane Ballard, which was about a teenage girl who wins a contest to become the Trent's Department Store spokesperson. I loved the book and began reading more and more books from the series, which started in 1981. One of the books, The Popularity Plan (Sweet Dreams, # 2) by Rosemary Vernon was one that I desperately wanted to read but had trouble finding. I finally gave up looking in my college years.

Fast forward 15 years . . . buying used books on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com had become a popular thing, and they were making it easier to find them. ThriftBooks.com was advertising The Popularity Plan (Sweet Dreams, # 2) for sale on one or both of the sites. I honestly don't remember which site I saw it on, but I ended up buying it and with shipping. I just finally got around to reading it and finished over the weekend. What can I say? Being in multiple book clubs and running races keeps me busy!

The Popularity Plan (Sweet Dreams, # 2) is about a shy, teenage girl named Frannie, who is painfully shy and has trouble talking to boys. Frannie's friends cook up a plan to overcome her shyness by plotting scenarios to give her the excuse to practice talking to boys, which included dropping her pencil during class and calling boys for homework assignments.
If you're an adult reading this book, don't go into it with high expectations. The targeted age group for the series is 11 years old and up, so even though it is a romance book, it doesn't really go into sex in most of the books, and when they do, it is just hinted at. In The Popularity Plan, it only goes into dating and kissing boys. Because this book was first published in 1981, I don't think many tweens or teens would enjoy the book as much. Disco was mentioned as well as heart throbs from the late 70's and early 80's . . . Mark Hamill and Sean Cassidy. It took me just the tiniest second to register their names. And, the style of clothing Frannie wore would be considered nerdy by today's standards.
The thing that disappointed me the most in the book is that Frannie's friends were the stereotypical popular kids who only wanted her to date the most popular boys and couldn't understand why Frannie wanted to date the art "geek" who was a nobody. When Frannie no longer wanted to date the popular boys because she didn't like who she had become and explained this to them, her friends ditched her because all of their help had been wasted.  This was the thing I disliked most about the book, which is why I gave it only 3 stars. At least they became friends again at the end of the book. The main character did get the guy she wanted in the end, but it only happened in the last 10-15 pages of the book.
It didn't really live up to my expectations, but that is probably because I read it as an adult versus reading it as a tween or teen. However, I am super happy that I finally got to knock this off my to read list, and it was nostalgic to read a book from the series.
Are their any books from your childhood that you didn't read then but read as an adult? Did it live up to your expectations? Let me know in the comments.

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