Diva by Jillian Larkin Delivers (as always)

Diva by Jillian Larkin
YA Historical Fiction
Rating: PG
Coffee Beans: 4 of 5 stars
Spoilers: Nope
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free via the publisher in exchange for this honest review.

Publisher’s Summary:
Parties, bad boys, speakeasies—life in Manhattan has become a woozy blur for Clara Knowles. If Marcus Eastman truly loved her, how could he have fallen for another girl so quickly? Their romance mustn't have been as magical as Clara thought. And if she has to be unhappy, she's going to drag everyone else down to the depths of despair right along with her.

Being a Barnard girl is the stuff of Lorraine Dyer's dreams. Finding out that Marcus is marrying a gold digger who may or may not be named Anastasia? A nightmare. The old Lorraine would have sat by and let the chips fall where they may, but she's grown up a lot these past few months. She can't bear to see Marcus lose a chance for true love. But will anyone listen to her?

Now that the charges against her have been dropped, Gloria Carmody is spending the last dizzying days of summer on Long Island, yachting on the sound and palling around with socialites at Forrest Hamilton's swanky villa. Beneath her smile, though, Gloria's keeping a secret. One that could have deadly consequences . . .

My Review:
I received Vixen (book 1 in the Flapper Series) a couple of years ago and LOVED it. I requested an ARC of Ingenue, book 2 in the series, and was denied. When Diva, book 3, came out, I tried again and was rewarded.

What I liked:
Even though I hadn’t read Ingenue, I knew where Vixen left off and where Diva picked up, and with the clues that Larkin sprinkled in throughout the story, I was able to fill in the story holes and not miss a beat.

Larkin does, once again, a brilliant job of making this another character driven novel. I love how the story is told from the points of view of all the main characters. Doing that really gave me a well-rounded and personal feel for each of the girls (and occasional guy), as well as a more 3-D image of the story. We’re given a view from Gloria that we would NEVER get from Clara. And the humor Lorraine provides would never be there had we only been told the story from Jerome’s point of view. You can’t help but form strong attachments to even the smaller-role characters with the way Larkin writes.

The 20’s has always been a favorite time period for me, and to have Larkin describe everything the way she does just puts me in heaven. I’d love to see this made into a movie so I could visually lust after all the gowns and shoes.

Favorite Line: It was better to risk loving too much before it was too late and all you were left with was regret. (pg 305, ebook)

What I didn’t like:
Even though I loved all the fashion talk about clothes and dresses, and I know that that was a big component of the 20’s, the name dropping got to be bit much at times.

I was a bit confused with Larkin’s dialogue tags. There would be a quote, then another person would be performing an action tagged onto someone else’s dialogue.

There were a few really good emotional scenes that really carry the momentum of the story that were interrupted with too much narrative which pulled me out and made the scene lose the impact Larkin was trying to give it. Also, there were a few high tension scenes that were just too short lived.

Overall, this is another terrific book in the Flapper Series, seamlessly knit with the first two, and an easy read. I really enjoyed reading it and will go back and pick up the second book just so I can get more of the Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine.

Happy reading, my friends!

--Me