Title: In Bloom (The Brightside #1)
SYNOPSIS
My name is Olivia Bloom and I. Am. Free.
I left for LA with everything I owned piled into my old Volkswagen and dreams of becoming a costume designer. Little did I know I’d wind up designing for a lingerie company—yeah, not sure how I landed this gig—and taken under the wing of two young Hollywood insiders. The fashion shows and parties were great, but life really got exciting when the seriously hottest lead singer of my favorite band started to fall for me.
How does someone like me, an ordinary girl from Pittsburgh, wind up in the arms of the world’s sexiest rock star—surrounded by celebrities, fashion, and music—and not be eaten alive? Berkeley is everything I've ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, but the paparazzi, the tabloids, the rumors, it's all getting a bit too crazy. My life has become every girl’s dream come true, if only I don’t blink and lose it all…
Immediate
thought after reading this book. In Bloom is
definitely a breather for me from those books that involve a lot of me ending
up bursting into tears. From time to time, it’s great to take a step back from
books that will drain the hell out of your emotions. This book is just a short, smooth flowing, fun (yes, there are a lot scenes where I end up giggling) and cute read (Aww moments). If you’re also, looking for a book with less drama … then, I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading this one.
Ramblings. Ha! I just
randomly requested this book on Netgalley after catching a glimpse of its cover
and I’m just happy that I had a really great time reading it. My previous
random requests in Goodreads didn’t end pretty well for me, for I just ended up
requesting sad and depressing types of books. I perfectly remember those well
and I was so bummed feeling drained and all. At some point, I already
considered not finishing those books but I don’t want that in my list. So yeah,
I got lucky this time around and had a Hollywood-ish experience with this book!
My thoughts. This isn’t the type of book wherein there are a lot
of intricacies and back story going on in the plot. It is focused on the "now" story of the main characters. Though, their past is injected in some parts of the book. It's also a book wherein there isn't much drama going on and it's quite refreshing for a New Adult book to have it.
The story is pretty straightforward, our main character - Olivia moved from Pittsburgh to LA to experience something new in life and have a new career. Little did she know that moving in to "The Vicente" will change her life. There she meets Parker and Blair, both working and having connections to the ins and outs of Hollywood. From there, Liv gets invited to exclusive parties. And in all of those events, she always ends up bumping into Berkeley Dalton, the uber sexy lead singer of Berkeley and the Brightside which happens to be her favorite band. Sparks fly and Berkeley pursues Liv ... well,I'm not telling you what happens next to their story. Go grab your copy of this book and read it!
This book also showcases the glamorous and the not soooo glamorous side of Hollywood. In a minute you can probably be the darling of the press but the next one could turn out to be not in your favor. That's a tough atmosphere to be with, such a messy kind of business. But if you love what you're doing (like Berkeley) and if you're really in love with someone in that business (like Olivia), then screw Hollywood and the downside of it.
Olivia. Her character is relatable, fun and adventurous. She's just one of us, a simple girl who moves to another place to build something out of herself. She's shy at times and doubting herself but with a little pep talk from Parker and Blair, her confidence level shoots up the sky and she proceeds to go through with whatever those two ask of her to do. Towards the end though, she became impulsive. But nahhh that's just a way to drag some drama in this book 'cause everything's like going really smooth for her and Berkeley.
Berkeley. He's such a gem. Despite being a known rockstar, Berkeley is still just a regular guy who falls in love and does things for that certain person. He's definitely a swoon-worthy guy because not only he sings but he also writes songs for their band too. He's really sweet and so caring towards Olivia.
Parker. Blair. Gemma. These three are Liv's awesome friends and her personal cheering squad/support group. They were the ones present from the beginning of Liv's journey and were still there until the very end of the book.
Olivia’s mom, is such a fun, quirky and at
times freaky character in the book. She has this psychic thing going on and is
really scaring the crap out of Liv. And that makes her kind of freaky. In all
honesty, Liv should’ve listened to her mom. LOL. But besides that, I had a
great laugh with the adventure of her character. Especially in those scenes where
she appears in Liv’s dreams, the levitation part of their class and her TWEETS!
Yes, guys, she also tweets! What an awesome and cool mom she is!
Twitter. Fangirl. Ships. Everything that’s
going on in this department is totally right up my alley and … is sooooo me! I’m a huge
fangirl myself who uses Twitter daily to vent out my overloading feels and
SHIPS sooooooooo many SHIPS (non-fictional or fictional people). I love that
every chapter starts off with a tweet or twitter conversations of the
characters, it makes the story very realistic. It reminds us that Olivia,
Parker, Blair, THE Mom or even Berkeley is just one of us, a regular person who
uses Twitter. Though, Olivia’s really lucky. THAT time when she got a follow
and a tweet from Berkeley, that time I was just thinking when will that happen
to me???!!! Those kinds of things just happen to highly fortunate people and
that’s not certainly me. And OMG the shipping thing. I admit that some fans go
hardcore when it comes to showing their support for their favourite pairing and
sometimes resulting for to them to bash someone who said something bad or he/she is the “third
party”/unwanted person in the equation. If you’re on Twitter, every single day
you’ll get to witness that kind of drama and by now I’m quite immune to that
already.
Manila. Manila was freakin’ mentioned in this
book. My eyes bugged out of their sockets when I read that part of the book. It
just made me so happy that once in awhile a certain book gives some reference
to my country, The Philippines.
The Brightside #2 Theories. Here are two of
my theories for the second instalment of this series: 1) The story could
revolve around the characters of Mark-Blair, since Mark is the closest
friend of Berkeley and the second member of the band that was really introduced
to us and he’s a friend of Blair. That make sense, since Blair also just got
out of a relationship and gallivanting the streets of LA, single. 2) Mark-Boots, because Liv and Berkeley
mentioned that they’ll introduce these two in the future. Hmmm. Could it mean
that Boots will take her time off in studying medicine and go traipsing to LA?
Anyways, correct or not, I’m still looking forward for the second book
of this series!
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Thank you Netgalley and Entangled Embrace for the review copy of this book!
This review is also posted on my Goodreads account, here.
Bye x
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