Diva by Jillian Larkin

While I've known The Flappers series was light, gossipy fun, I still became attached to the characters and was looking forward to Diva, the final book in the trilogy. And Diva starts off well enough; Gloria is being released from prison (if she helps the cops), Clara is bereft without Marcus but still writing, and Lorraine has started college and is ready for love. So what happened? What went wrong and what went right?

What Went Right: Issues are resolved, and I'm basically pretty happy with them. Clara doesn't back down; she's absolutely the best character in the book and comes the furthest as far as character development. There's a huge, exciting climax with a major dramatic flair that really feeds a romanticist's dreams.

What Went Wrong: So, so much. This is going to be a bit spoilery, so consider yourselves forewarned.

Marcus? Really? He breaks up with the love of his life and then is actually marrying someone else he basically knows nothing about within a month? Nope. So ridiculous.
Forrest and Ruby? Just didn't care about either one, particularly a woman who so obviously uses men for her own ends. Got what you deserved. Still don't understand the whole bit with Forrest and his father. It just didn't make sense, no matter how it was explained.
Lorraine? Her character degenerated into ridiculous comic relief. I kept thinking she couldn't get any dumber and then...yep, it happened. Sort of a Lucille Ball, over-the-top airhead with no redeeming qualities at all. She never gets better, even when she finds love instantaneously with a boy whom she requires keep his glasses on so he'd look good.
Gloria and Jerome? I still don't buy that they sailed off into the sunset. Yes, I get that people still gave them a hard time as a mixed race couple in the 1920s, but I still don't see it. Maybe they did, but Gloria's immaturity and lack of foresight just seemed to make me feel that these two have more issues than race. Not feeling it.
Clothes? If I read one more description of clothing, down to the threads used, one more time...arrrrrrgh! I get that the author loves the period and knows her stuff. But it's self-indulgent to spend so much time describing costumes, not to mention it's just a filler for having nothing else to say.

I don't know...maybe my tolerance for superficial young women falling instantly and forever in love is low this week. Despite knowing that this would be fluff, I'm let down. Yes, it delivers what it should. Yes, I know it's young adult and therefore should be forgiven, perhaps, a little more than adult fiction. But then again, I don't think so. I expect a certain amount of believability in my fiction (unless I know in advance that it's fantasy), and I just feel shortchanged. I wanted to love this final book, and I just didn't. I didn't hate it, but it just fell short of what it could have been. I'll round up from 2.5 stars because I did enjoy the first two, so I'll give this one the benefit of my good feelings for those two.

~taminator40

Ingenue

Ingenue, the second book in Jillian Larkin's Flapper series, picks up a few months after Vixen left off, but it thrusts us full force back into the lives of the four main characters. It's now summer and Clara has followed Marcus to New York City, looking for a new start in the place where she was formerly known as the wild child flapper. Also in New York is Lorraine, who finds herself running a speakeasy due to Ernesto Macharelli's influence, rubbing elbows with the Mob and still out for revenge against former best friend Gloria. That leaves Gloria and Jerome, who are still having to sneak around for their forbidden love affair, living in poorer circumstances than either has ever known, and desperate not to be found. When Jerome's younger sister Vera discovers that Jerome's life is still in danger from the vengeful Carlito Macharelli, she (and friend Evan) hightail it to NYC to find Jerome and Gloria and let them know about the danger.

Lots and lots of action fills Ingenue: secret Mob dealings, romance, deception, betrayal, and flappers galore abound. I loved how Clara starts to come into her own, but suffered right along with her when she struggles with her relationship with Marcus. Gloria and Jerome's story is well done but I still feel that, for the times, it is unrealistic and cannot possibly end well, but we'll see if love triumphs. Lorraine? Well, I've never warmed up to her, and her ridiculous vendetta and uber-foolishness really sent me over the edge this time. But if there's someone I really felt was extraneous, it was Vera, at least for the first 3/4 of the book; it wasn't until Evan's life is threatened that she finally comes to life. She spends way too much time wandering around and when she finally sees Gloria, she disrupts an entire ballroom? Uh...no. But she does manage to make up for it later on so I suppose I can forgive her earlier traipses around NYC.

Ingenue isn't high literature by any means, but it is good, gossipy fun set in the decadence of the twenties. The girls may be in the big city, but they are in way over their heads and it's gonna be a bumpy ride yet. Enjoyable, light, and engaging...what more can you ask?
 
~taminator40

Vixen by Jillian Larkin

Vixen is set in 1920s Chicago, a time when liquor was outlawed and only outlaws had liquor; a time when young women were beginning to discover the power they could wield in society; a time when the rich had the world at their feet but didn't quite know what to do with it. Thus we come to know Gloria Carmody, good girl extraordinaire, seventeen and engaged to the dashing Bastian Grey, longing to break out of the mold and experience life. All it takes is one illicit visit to a speakeasy, and her life is changed forever when she sees a black pianist who makes her heart sing in a way her fiancee never could.



Gloria's world is populated by her best friend Lorraine, who secretly lusts for Marcus, a playboy who is like a brother to Gloria, and Gloria's "country" cousin Clara, recently come to Chicago to help plan the wedding...or has she? Because no one is as they seem and appearances must be upheld at all times, even over happiness.


There is nothing deep about Vixen; it's sort of a 1920s version of many television shows currently popular. It would, in fact, be fairly easy to pick the book apart if I were so inclined: Gloria falls madly in love with the pianist without so much as talking to him; he is a young black man, which in this time and place would have meant both of them being ostracized if they embarked on a relationship, yet Gloria is willing to give up her life for someone she's known just a few weeks (I suppose that's the cynic in me coming out); Bastian is so typically evil as to be a caricature; Clara's past catches up to her way too easily and publicly. Mostly, had I read the word "flapper" one more time, I might've been forced to do physical harm to the next person I saw simply to take out my frustration. But despite its flaws, it is crammed full of atmosphere and fun, with plenty of emphasis on fashion and young, privileged lives spiraling out of control. The ending alone makes the book worth the read; naturally, I'm waiting for the sequel to find out where all this mess is headed. Perfect brain candy, and that's never a bad thing.

~taminator40