Serena Trebilco

4.5 stars.

I really wanted to like this book. The plot looked amazing and I even liked the characters. But there was a major flaw. I couldn't finish it. I got to about a third of the way through and felt there were so many other books much more worth my time. Why, you ask? Because it was so badly written.

I hate giving bad reviews but the writing annoyed me so much that I couldn't just stop reading without giving it a review. A lot of the phrases felt so out of place in the novel and a lot of it was really cheesy. And I don't mind a bit of cheese, but there's only so much a girl can take.

The novel is about Val, a teenager who when she turns 18 has a mysterious tattoo appear on her arm. Not only that, she can teleport, control water and not be affected by fire. Now this to me sounded like a really good premise for the book. It was something different, and I genuinely wanted to find out why this was happening to Val and find out more about her powers. But the writing, I'm sorry to say, got to me and I just can't see myself ever picking it up again.

This book was absolute torture. But it was so, so brilliantly done. Also, I'm going to have one hell of a book hangover.

I so wanted to love this book. After reading Sparkles, which I absolutely adored, I was really looking forward to reading another book by Louise Bageshawe. Glamour had everything going for it: 3 powerful women, the test of true friendship, gorgeous guys and even a really good story line. But what made me only rate it 3 stars is how disconnected I felt from the characters about 2/3 through this book. After almost 300 pages of thinking what brilliant characters these were and that I really knew them, I suddenly felt like I was reading a completely different book and I no longer cared what happened to them. Also, what got on nerves was that one minute it was all ‘girl power' (excuse the cheesiness!!) and not needing a man to being completely dependent and not being able to function without having a man in your life. Completely chliched.

What I did love about the book though was the personalities of the 3 women, each so so different and yet all believably (although not all of the time) gain wealth and success in their lives. The pace also made the first 300 pages really comfortable reading, but that did seem to change and everything felt a bit rushed after that.

All in all, not one of Bageshawe's best reads. I'm definitely going to check out her other books though, I'm hoping this one was just a blip!

Shelving this as ‘DNF'. I just can't stand the main character and the writing isn't for me.