3 cups

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants to be a flapper lifestyle, but she’s engaged to Bastian, so it seems as if she'll never realize this dream.

Clara, Gloria’s cousin, has arrived to help with wedding, but she has secrets of her own and she’ll do anything to keep them hidden.

Lorraine, Gloria’s best friend, is tired of living in Gloria’s shadow. Envy has a way of turning ugly, as Lorraine soon discovers, as she lets it get the better of her.

VIXEN is the first novel in a new series set in the Roaring Twenties.

My thoughts:

In the beginning, I struggled to get into the characters. I just couldn't relate to them. Then again, they were rich, white girls, around HS ages, and whining about their lives. I'm way older than that now, and even back then my attitude would've been "Oh, yeah, you've really got it rough. NOT!"

I stuck with it though, and I found I did enjoy them better as I got to know them a little bit.

The story centers around 3 girls: Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine. At the very end, we see a chapter focusing on Vera. I'm wondering if she'll be the focus in the upcoming books. This is the first in what will be a series, though I don't remember if it's a trilogy or longer.

Gloria is used to doing her duty, in so far as she doesn't even really blink at marrying a man whom her parents want her to marry. Even when she discovers ... an unpleasant truth about him, she's still moving forward with the marriage.

Lorraine is just a stupid, evil...well, she just came across as a stereotypical spoiled, little rich girl. She was used to getting her way, she wants more, and she'll do anything to get it. She justifies herself all along the path to destruction (hers or others), and seems to honestly believe that she's in the right.

Clara was a touch more relatable for me. She'd made some mistakes in her life, and she was trying to move past the pain of them and create a better future for herself.

Gloria does become more likeable as the story progresses. She finally sees the light about taking chances, living for your own happiness, and finding passion in life.

The only other part where I found myself really irritated was when the girls at school were so "catty" towards Gloria. I understand the prejudices that ran rampant back then, but I've never understood how girls can turn on each other as viciously as they seem to do. Even when I was their age, I didn't "get it". Of course, I'm probably extremely uncouth, because my response was to beat down the ones who irritated me by being idiots like that. Ah well.

Though in my opinion, it means the story was well written for me to become invested in Gloria enough to care how the other girls were treating her.

It looks as if the next book in the series will be heading to NYC for it's backdrop. I'll be interested in hearing more about the '20's in NYC instead of Chicago.

Definitions are quoted by The New Oxford American Dictionary

viviparous: "(of an animal) bringing forth live young that have developed inside the body of the parent."

expatiate: "speak or write at length or in detail."

perfidy: "deceitfulness; untrustworthiness."

[L]ife is like Friday on a soap opera. It gives you the illusion that everything is going to wrap up, and then the same old shit starts up on Monday." -Stephen King, Duma Key