The Kari AnnAlysis

Release: August 1, 2009 

Once again, Rachel Maude takes us into the lives of Charlotte (the prissy one), Melissa (the sassy one), Petra (the hippie one) and Janie (the shy one). If you haven’t read these books before, let me catch you up.  These four girls are put into a group for a class. They all like fashion and make a handbag using all of their ideas. The problem is when they ask everyone to help them come up with a name, POSEUR is written on every form.

In this book, they are working with a famous designer who wants to sell their bag. They have to find someone to show off the bag and the perfect party for it.

This book was cute, much like the other ones, but it didn’t do as much for me. I flew through it, but I wish there would have been more styling. I loved the first book as they worked together on a piece. This was more of high school drama … for the rich and famous.

I do enjoy this series. It always keeps me reading and as childish as it sounds, the pictures are great. There are drawings scattered through the book that show particular outfits the girls are wearing throughout the book. I like having an idea of what the girls look like and their style. Although I can picture them with a description, a picture says a thousand words right?

I give Petty in Pink 3 bookmarks

The 4th in the series, All that Glitters is not Gucci, comes out this spring. I will pick it up so I can keep up with the girls. I am really hoping it takes us back to the fashion side though.

Poseur Series
1. Poseur (read before blog)
2. The Good, The Fab and The Ugly

I’ve been debating doing Musing Mondays for a while now. I’ve recently started Teaser Tuesday and Booking Through Thursday, but when I saw today’s topic, I had to respond.

The 8/24 Musing Monday topic: Do you prefer to read stand-alone books, or books in series? Do you stick with a series the whole way through or stop after the first instalment? Are there any particular series you enjoy?(question courtesy of Elena)

I think by looking at the list of books I’ve read in the past year, you can tell I’m a series girl. When I meet a character, I like to stay with  them and keep learning about them.

I’ve read all of the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum novels but one. This year I’ve also read Son of a Witch, which is the second in the Wicked Years Series. I’ve read the second book in the Poseur series. I also read A Job to Kill For which is the second in the Lacy Field Mystery Series.

I read the first 12 Plum books one after the other, but since then, I’ve slowed down a little. On the other ones, I normally just read them when I get to them. I rarely ever go to the book store when a book is released, even if it is next in my series.

My favorite series is the Plum Series. Check out my book list and I’m sure you will be able to tell.

Every now and then I like to read a single novel to get my mind off things, but in the end, I think I’ll always come back to a series!

This is the second book in the Poseur series by Rachel Maude.

The books are about 4 high school girls from completely different molds. One is a hoity-toity Frenchie. One is the daughter of a rapper. One is a hippie. And one is a Plain Jane, whose name just happens to be Janie.

The four are all passionate about one thing: STYLE! They get grouped together for a project where they make their own clothing line. At the end of the first book, they have a party to name the line and on every piece of paper, someone wrote POSEUR.

That’s where 1 left off and 2 begins.

This is more of a tween novel about high school girls, but since I read the first one and thought it was cute, I wanted to try to second. I do love me some series.

I really like how this book is laid out. Instead of having a 1,2,3 at the beginning of every chapter, it tells you who you’re going to be dealing with, and most importantly, what they’re wearing. It’s a nice way of changing it up. And honestly, who really needs the numbers?

I also like how she emphasizes words. In the field of journalism, we do whatever we can to show our anchors which words are important. Most of the time we use /this/ so the anchor knows that’s the word they need to pop. Maude does the same thing here by using italics to let you know which words the girls are emphasizing. I think it shows the personality of the girls. Everyone uses emphasis on different things. To me, it shows not only intelligence, but what’s important to each person.

This may seem childish, but I love the pictures that come in the books. The pictures are supposed to come from the main character, Janie. I like them because every time I read a book, and I think most people do, I imagine in my head what each character looks like. In these books, I know what they look like and how they dress because they are right there on the pages. I also like with this book, they come out with a Trick-or-Treat bag and each of the 4 girls designs are shown along with the final design. And at the end of the book, it picks out an outfit that each of the girls wore and tells you how to make it. It confused me from step one, but it’s a cool, hands on idea.

This is a very trendy book. And while I like to think I know the top designers, I also know after Fendi, Gucci and Prada, I’m all out of resources. They’re not things I can afford, so unless you’re at the Huntington Mall, there’s really no reason for me to know about you unless I’m reading Perez. I’ve learned about a lot of designers through this book. I’ve been googling them as I come across them. I hope Mikey doesn’t stumble across the sites and think I’m really thinking about shopping there. I may need to just go ahead and warn him.

I really can’t say there are much about these books that I don’t like. They are cute and fun and even though I don’t know much about life in California, it’s how I imagine the wealthier side living. Since they are easy reads and they make me happy, I will give this 4 bookmarks. If I gave half marks, it would probably get 3.5, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

I think these books are super cute. And yes, I will be looking for the 3rd one when it comes out.