Hannah Lee

Hannah Lee
Winter White
Jen Calonita
Realistic Fiction
Just Right
110


1. The book that I'm reading right now is Winter White by Jen Calonita. Winter White is the sequel to Belles, and focuses on two girls, Mira and Izzie. In the first book, you learn about Izzie, a teen growing up in crime-stricken Harborside. She's lived with her grandmother since her mom died when she was ten, up until recently because of her grandmother's increasing health issues. When Izzie's social worker finds a long lost uncle who is willing to take Izzie in, Izzie is sent to live with them while her grandmother is moved to a nursing home. Her new life with her uncle and his family is much different than her old  one. She now lives in Emerald Cove, a high end suburb close to Harborside but with much different social, and economic environments. Everyone in Emerald Cove is wealthy and refined, including her new family which include her Uncle Bill, who's a North Carolina senator, Aunt Maureen, and cousins Mira, Hayden, and Connor. Adjusting to her new life in Emerald Cove, and going to school at the high end private school, Emerald Prep. Throughout the whole book, Izzie is faced with dealing with her cousin Mira's mean best friend, Savannah, and trying to fit in when she clearly doesn't belong. At the end of the book, a bombshell is dropped at the school's charity dance, that Uncle Bill isn't really her uncle, but rather her father. The sequel starts out with both Mira and Izzie still harboring distrust towards their father after keeping this from all of them, even though he only found out about Izzie a month before she moved in with them. While everything looks fine, and they appear as the happy family on TV appearances to smooth things over as Bill runs for U.S. Senate, behind the scenes Izzie and Mira are still mad about the whole incident. Both of the girls are dealing with their own problems as well, as Mira is being exiled from her old friend group after formally accepting Izzie as a friend and sister. She's taking the loss of friends harder than everyone thinks, and she only has Kellen, her crush and only friend to lean on for support. Izzie has mixed feeling about Brayden, her best guy friend and also long standing crush. All seems to be well, as he wants to be with her, the only problem is that he's Savannah's recent ex, and Izzie doesn't want to worry about poking the dragon. Both girls are Sophmores in high school, which means that they're also having to juggle all of their family issues, friend issues, and boy issues, with the problem of Cotillion, and all of the hazing that comes with it. In the last part I read, the girls had just finished their first dare given to them by the former Debutantes, girls who are now juniors in high school at Emerald Cove. No one knows who the girls are that run the tests for the Cotillion initiation process, but all of them are very mischievous and occasionally cruel with the assignments they give out. I loved this last part because the Cotillion captain did all of the girls' makeup like Lady Gaga, and made them go out as a group and sing a song in the middle of a football game. I especially liked this part because they dressed Savannah up as the devil, which I though really suited her personality.

2. So far I am loving this book. I couldn't put Belles down, and this one is even better. The whole idea of the book is so amazing, and I'm so jealous of Izzie that she get's to live that life, even after she's endured all the hardships she has. I love how the book has a Cinderella theme to it, as Izzie led a tough life before the Monroes took her in, but now she has great friends, and a loving family even if they don't always tell her the whole truth. I can kind of see why Bill didn't tell Izzie he was her dad right away. He had just recently found out himself, and when Izzie comes to live with them, the adjustment is hard enough, finding you're long-absent father would be really hard to take in. Not to mention the fact that Bill is running for U.S. Senate, and even though he never had an affair, and Izzie was born even before he was married, if news got out like that, the media would not take kindly to the announcement, like they are now. I felt really bad for Izzie that she had to find out when there were a bunch of people around, and it kind of just came out, but I think she's completely overreacting now when she won't forgive Bill for not telling her. It's also kind of ridiculous that Mira's angry as well, because it doesn't really concern her. She should be happy she has a sister, not mad at her dad because he was waiting for the best time to tell the family.

3. One theme that I've noticed throughout the book is Power of wealth. Basically all of the characters in the book are rich, and if they can't get something fairly, than they'll obtain it through their money or power. Savannah blackmails Mira for much of the first book with her dad's wealth and support of Mira's dad's campaign. Savannah also buys off all of the businesses in town so they won't cater Izzie's charity fundraiser. It frustrates me that the characters in the book don't realize how lucky they are, except Izzie. Something I really admire about Izzie is that she's not afraid to point out to Mira how lucky she is, which is something that Mira doesn't recognize even though she's a really nice person. Almost all of the characters in this book are spoiled and would be lost without all the money they have. Even they pretend to care about the less fortunate, and do fundraisers for them, they really only do it to make themselves look better, which is the wrong reason to give to charity. Even the charity's they give to are snobby, like the yacht club in town, or the save the official bird of EC, charities that don't even need that much support. I think that since Izzie has entered the story though, she's influenced people to be more thankful.

4. My favorite character in the story is Izzie. She is so lucky to have the opportunity to live where she does and get the education that she gets and she totally recognizes that. She's also has a temper and although she keeps it in check most of the time, it's so fun to see her when she rebels against what Savannah wants her to do. At the beginning of Belles she was really shy and was kind of a push-over but now she's a lot more confident now that she has friends and she's turning into a really fun character. Another reason I love Izzie as a character is because she always stands up for what she believes in. She wants to support her old community center which has fallen into disrepair and is in risk of being torn down. She doesn't give up though as she raises money to save the building. Even through all of Savannah's schemes to make her give up she perseveres and finds creative solutions to her problems like using the school barn as the venue for the dance and using caterers from Harborside instead of caterers from EC. She's so hardworking which is a really admirable trait to have. She's also extremely forgiving and even after Brayden ignores her and pretends he doesn't know her when they first meet, she forgives him for it. She forgives Mira after she does some pretty horrible stuff to her, and she's already closer to forgiving her dad than Mira is. Izzie never holds a grudge which is amazing after all the things she's had to go through.

5. My least favorite character is definitely Savannah. I don't think I can find one positive thing to say about her. She's cruel, exclusive, and judges Izzie before she even gets to know her. All of the things she does to Izzie like ruining her chances of getting any help from the businesses in Emerald Cove are so mean and she only does it because Izzie is different from the rest of them. When Mira realizes how horrible of a friend Savannah is, she is excluded from the group. Savannah is nasty to Mira whenever she sees her, and disguises insults behind what seem like compliments. That's the worst kind of person in my opinion, because you can never tell if they're being genuine or sarcastic. Savannah excludes Izzie from her little group too, and makes Mira do it as well, which is totally unfair because even though they don't know it, Izzie is Mira's sister. I was so happy to see the Cotillion captain be rude to Savannah when she complains about what they have to do for their first challenge. I thought that Savannah totally deserved the makeover they gave her, and I thought it was awesome when Izzie took a picture of it. I hope that Savannah gets better as the book continues, but I doubt she will since it seems like people like her never change.

6. A prediction that I have is that the challenges for the Cotillion imitation will get harder, and that some of the girls will drop out. As much of an honor it is to be a Debutante, I don't think all of the girls are cut out for the jobs that will be assigned. I think that Brayden and Izzie will start going out, but that Savannah will get really angry since she is Brayden's ex. I think that she will try to break them up if they start going out, and that she might succeed. I think that Mira will get shot down if she admits to Kellen that she likes him, because it doesn't really seem like he likes her any more than on a friend basis. I think that Bill will end up doing something drastic to get Mira and Izzie to forgive him for not telling them the truth about everything, and that it will work. I hope that that happens soon though because I can tell that he is really upset that they won't forgive him. I think the rest of the book will be filled with surprises, and that each chapter will get better and better.