Flower - Elizabeth Craft & Shea Olsen

Flower by Elizabeth Craft and Shea Olsen
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): These are the things that I've always wanted: 
To get the top grades in my class. 
To make my grandmother proud. 
And most of all, proof that I could succeed where the rest of my family had not: a Stanford acceptance letter, early admission. 
My mother and my sister were obsessed with boys and love and sex. So obsessed that they lost sight of their futures, of what they wanted. And in the end, they lost everything. 
I'll never let a boy distract me. I promised my grandmother that. 
But that was before Tate. 
Before the biggest pop star on the planet took an interest in me. 
Before private planes and secret dates and lyrics meant for me alone. 
There's so much I don't know. Like why he left music. Where he goes when we're not together. What dark past he's hiding. But when we kiss, the future feels far away. And now…I'm not sure what I want.

MY OPINION: **

I started out loving this book. I grabbed it from my local library and started reading it in a dimly-lit restaurant, loving every part of it. The characters grabbed me from the beginning and I could already tell I liked the plotline.

And then everything changed.

As I got further into this book, all of my feelings about it changed. It's not that it was a "bad" book, but there were just so many things about it that left me either angry or annoyed.

This book had a lot of potential, I'll say. It could have been something amazing, maybe even six-star worthy, but the way it was drawn out left it sorely lacking.

But let's talk about the good, first, shall we?

GOOD:

-The writing.
Everything about the writing style was SO good. I loved how this whole book was written. It wasn't overly descriptive and boring and it also wasn't just all dialogue. It was varied and complex and I loved how it paid attention to the little things in life.

-Tate
Not his personality, just his overall physical appearance. In my brain, he was a pop star god. But his overall personality just killed it all.

-Carlos.
There's nothing I can say against this guy. He was adorable and endearing and definitely my favorite character of the book.

-The beginning.
As I said, I loved how this book started.

-Stanford!
I love books that have anything concerning Stanford University because that's kind of my life.


And now,  we have to move on to the not-so-good parts.

NOT-SO-GOOD:

-Tate's personality. He was kind of a jerk if you ask me. He led Charlotte on SO many times and it's just horrible how guys think that they can just CONTROL their girlfriends and treat girls like trash. The whole pop star thing wasn't appealing if he's going to use his "fame" to hurt women.

-Charlotte.
It wasn't so much as HER as the fact that her decisions and actions were SO stupid. NO, HONEY, YOU DO NOT TAKE A GUY BACK WHO HAS HURT YOU AT LEAST 4 TIMES. Also, please don't give up Stanford. I don't care if you think you're following your dreams. It's Stanford.

-The romance.
I feel as if this book was ALL cheesy romance in order to show that they were "in love" and give Tate some justification. No, Tate, you can't expect to win back a girl by kissing her and giving her some soppy speech with promises that you just end up breaking.

-The "wild" breakups and makeups.
This book was so annoying to me because of the fact that Tate and Charlotte break up and get back together like 4759823904589279742973 times. At that point, one of them should move on (*ahem* Charlotte *ahem) and give up. It's like, if you've been hurt more than once, let go.

-The "rich" life.
It's not that that was bad, but it was the fact that Tate thought that by buying Charlotte clothes and first-class tickets and taking her to get a makeover and blonde highlights, he could somehow win her over. It's like he was BUYING HER. And that's not okay. Girls aren't some product that you can just buy with money. BUT THE PROBLEM WAS, SHE FELL FOR IT.

-The fact that Charlotte has no resolve.
She's weak. She tells us early on that she's NOT going to ever date a guy until later and make the same mistakes that her grandma, mom, and sister made. They all got pregnant REALLY early. And then within 30 pages, she meets a guy and forgets all about her OWN promises. I would have thought she would have fought harder and remembered what she always said.

-Charlotte really isn't a good girl.
She seems like she cares about grades and homework and work and Stanford but once she meets a guy, she throws it all away. She becomes this crazy girl who just wants to have a relationship with someone and she doesn't even seem to care about the risks. As soon as she meets Tate, she forgets all about everything that she ever cared about and suddenly everything in her life revolves around Tate to the point of lying to her best friend and grandma.

-Charlotte isn't a bookworm??
She keeps labelling herself as a "nerdy-bookworm" and is even surprised that Tate could date "the nerd" but in reality, in this ENTIRE book, we NEVER see her read. Or pick up a book.

-Tate makes rash decisions without explanations.
Tate annoyed me because he kept doing things like pushing her away, sending her home, etc without even explaining WHY. Charlotte at least deserved that.

-THE GOTH GIRL
WHAT HAPPENED THERE THAT WAS SO RANDOM AND DID NOT FIT AT ALL IN THE STORY I WAS JUST SO CONFUSED (I do understand it was to show that being with Tate is not a good thing and is scary and dangerous) But did there really have to be an attempted murder from a crazy stalker fan??

Reading reviews, I see that this book has mixed opinions. I'm somewhere in the middle because I absolutely LOVED the writing and the good aspects but did not like how it all played out in the end.

I would recommend this book to people who are looking for a quick, romantic read.

Main Character: Charlotte
Sidekick(s): Tate, Carlos, Mia, Holly, etc
Villain(s): That goth girl, misunderstandings, breakups, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: All of this was very real to life.