The Book Barbies: |Review| Amplified by Tara Kelly

Title: Amplified
Author: Tara Kelly
Published: October 25th 2011 by Henry Holt and Co.
Genre: New adult YA, contemporary, romance, music
Rating:
Goodreads summary:

When privileged 17-year-old Jasmine gets kicked out of her house, she takes what is left of her savings and flees to Santa Cruz to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. Jasmine finds the ideal room in an oceanfront house, but she needs to convince the three guys living there that she's the perfect roommate and lead guitarist for their band, C-Side. Too bad she has major stage fright and the cute bassist doesn't think a spoiled girl from over the hill can hack it. . .

In this fresh new novel by critically acclaimed author Tara Kelly, Jasmine finds out what happens when her life gets Amplified.

Racquel's thoughts:
Going into Amplified, I didn't have any expectations which was great because who doesn't like picking up random books and then ending up falling in love with it? Amplified definitely had everything I liked in a book! First of all it's a new adult book, meaning the main teenage character is out of high school even if they're just 17, like Jasmine, the main character of Amplified. New adult easily becoming my new favorite genre because while I enjoy plain ol' YA, I'm coming to realize I'm growing out of it and I've been catching myself reading more and more adult contemporaries to satisfy my reading hunger. Though, it saddens me when I'm only a teenage girl myself and I can't even relate books meant for my me and age group. But thank god new adult books have been filling in the gap that some YA books have been leaving.

The realistic high school settings I come across in YA books are very, very few so I don't have to worry about rolling my eyes about how ridiculous an author is portraying high school with new adult books. Also new adult books allow more freedom to the character since usually MC's are their own legal guardian. There is nothing I hate more than when I'm reading a YA book and main characters come an go without a single mention of parents. It's very annoying, I'm sure even fictional characters have parents just like single human being. I give new adult characters way more lenity about that and surprisingly, every single new adult book I have read has been big on showing the relationship between parent and child. Even if that main character doesn't live with their parents anymore. I know, it shocks me too!! This is the case with Amplified, Jasmine has deferred college and therefore her dad kicked her out but that's not the end of that relationship, throughout the book we get so much impact Jasmine and her dad's rocky relationship has had on her and how moving past those things help her grow.

Which brings me to Jasmine. She is one of the strongest girls I have ever had the pleasure to read about. She might not have any paranormal, super powers. She might not be saying the world from an evil faery attack or a dystopian government but she is a real heroine! Seeing her struggle with life, money and just surviving in the book without asking anyone for help or burdening anyone with her problems frustrated because it made me want to jump in the book and help her myself but she soldier on and made the best of everything! If that's a true heroine quality, I don't what is.

The secondary characters were also great, I loved all the band members even when they were a little moody *coughBRYNcough!* though I felt Felix was a little under developed compared to Veta, Bryn & Sean. Speaking of Sean and the romance, I definitely adored Sean as a character but what's keeping this book from being a 5 heart read is the simple fact that while the romance was highly enjoyable, it didn't BLOW ME AWAY and made my heart skip beats. Otherwise, everything about Amplified is worth going out for to buy the book!

Rating: 4~ an outstanding, enjoyable new adult novel. I cannot wait for more from Tara Kelly!

First:

I said no to my dad this morning.

Favorite:

"Oh my God." I said.

"Oh my God what?" Dad asked.

"Um there's a spider in my bed."

Sean crinkled his eyebrows, his lips twitching.

"So kill it," Dad said.

.....

"Sorry, Dad I--I have to call you back." I snapped the phone shut and sat up, gawking at Sean.

He rolled over, draping his arm over his forehead. "A spider? Really?

Teaser: