Mundie Moms

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Book Review: Take A Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg


Published by: Scholastic
To Be Released on: April 1st, 2012
Source: ARC/book from publisher to review
4.5 stars: I Really Enjoyed It
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble


From the fantastic author of The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom & Prejudice comes a story of all the drama and comedy of four friends who grow into themselves at a performing arts high school.
Emme, Sophie, Ethan, and Carter are seniors at a performing arts school, getting ready for their Senior Showcase recital, where the pressure is on to appeal to colleges, dance academies, and professionals in show business. For Sophie, a singer, it's been great to be friends with Emme, who composes songs for her, and to date Carter, soap opera heartthrob who gets plenty of press coverage. Emme and Ethan have been in a band together through all four years of school, but wonder if they could be more than just friends and bandmates. Carter has been acting since he was a baby, and isn't sure how to admit that he'd rather paint than perform. The Senior Showcase is going to make or break each of the four, in a funny, touching, spectacular finale that only Elizabeth Eulberg could perform. -quoted from Goodreads

Elizabeth Eulberg has a talent for writing books that connect me with her characters, engage me with her story telling and leave me wanting more when the story is done. With Take A Bow she does all that and a little more. I loved getting to meet Carter, Emme, Ethan and Sophie. I was completely blown away at Elizabeth's talent for creating and writing four distinct voices whom I never had to ask myself who was talking through out the course of reading the book. Elizabeth made it so easy to not only get to know each character, she created an incredibly engaging story for me to love. 

Even though I don't know what it's like to be a child and teen actor like Carter does, I'm not in a band like Emme and Ethan are and I have no desire to be an aspiring singer and actress like Sophie does, Elizabeth made it easy for me to relate to and identify with each of her characters. Sure they go to the prestigious CPA performing arts school for the gifted, but they are just like every other teen. This is their senior year and like many seniors they're trying to figure out what they want out of life, as well as finding their place in the world. Some of them deal with heartbreak, betrayal, rejection, and others fall in love, learn to say no, find their own and take hold of their destiny. What I loved about these characters is how easy it was for me to connect with and identify with them. I fell in love with them (well most of them), enjoyed getting to know them and admired them for how much they changed/grew as the story progressed.

I am extremely picky when it comes to reading books with multiple points of views, but I loved the way Elizabeth wrote Take A Bow. She not only kept the story progressing with each of the four character's points of views, but also allowed me to get to know them on an individual level, as well as see how all four of them interact together. While Sophie angered me to know end, Emme, Ethan and Carter made it so easy for me to love them. The reason being is that they're characters who are flawed, they're real, realistically portrayed and they all inadvertently do things to help each other out. These three characters are the ones I felt grew the most, and they all do so in extremely different ways. I didn't care much for Sophie and how shallow she was through out the entire storyline, but I did appreciate what her character added to the story. Emme was the one that grew the most for me. Carter had me rooting for him from the beginning and Ethan is the one I left with a stupid grin on my face. 

Elizabeth Eulberg does such a beautiful job at creating characters I fall in love with, root for and want to go hang out with. With Elizabeth's book I always know I'll feel completely satisfied with the story, will love with her writing, her story telling and her characters. Without fail her books always give that little pick me I needed and leaving me grinning when I'm done with them. If you're looking for a book that will whisk you away from reality for a bit, give you a richly written dialogue between four distinct well written characters and leave you feeling all hopeful and completely after reading it, than I highly recommend picking up Take A Bow. 

7 comments:

  1. I am a fan of multiple POV's as long as they are done well. It sounds like they are in this book. Lovely review!

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    1. Thank you! Yes, Elizabeth did a great job with her multiple points of view. I think this a book you'd enjoy.

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  2. I'm really picky about multiple narrators too. I just read a book with multiple narrators and it just didn't work for me, I never really connected or cared that deeply about the characters.

    Still on the fence about Take A Bow, though. I've read one good review of it (this one) and one positive, but it's not the book for me review today. Sigh.

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    1. There has been only a small handful of books with multiple narrators that's really worked for me. It's so hard for me to connect with that many characters, but I felt like Elizabeth did a great job with allowing me to connect with hers.

      Let me know if you want to borrow it. I'd be happy to lend it to you. It was an enjoyable, quick read for me.

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  3. Fabulous review! I've come across this book before but didn't think I'd like it. I've definitely changed my mind after reading your review though. :)

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