Review: An adventure of a book!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 21, 2014
I See London by Chanel Cleeton is a fantastic example of a well-written New Adult book. It had all the parts I like best about NA; the well, new adult characters, a bit of romance, and a whole lot of self discovery. Becoming an adult is a scary thing that includes growing up, making decisions, and making even more mistakes. All of the characters, not just the main character, in this book were facing their newly found adulthood and all in different ways. I loved feeling like I was a part of this group of friends as they embraced the good and the bad parts of growing up while living in London.The main character, Maggie was enjoyable yes, but what I liked about her was the fact that she was incredibly normal. I don’t mean any of this in a bad way but she wasn’t extraordinary, or at least in the beginning; she was an average girl from an average town in the U.S. She had a few friends from high school but never really fit in there. Her home life was good but her mother left and her father was never around leaving her grandparents to care for her. She went to school, worked hard to get good grades but really that was about it. Whether it was intentional or not, Maggie being this normal, typical girl, made this story totally work for me. Even though there was nothing super duper extra special about her, she still got the chance to travel all the way to London to go to school, she was able to go on these fun, exotic trips, meet people from all over the world, and experience all sorts of awesome things. It made me believe that me or my friend, my sister, or really any other normal girl out there could experience something like Maggie’s story too. I especially loved watching Maggie blossom throughout this book. She starts off so quiet and shy but with the help of her new friends, she soon learns to come out of her shell.Maggie’s experience was a whirlwind, one I am still trying to wrap my head around. She got to explore London on her free time, she was able to travel to Venice and Paris, she partied in hot new night clubs. and hung out with people from Lebanon, Paris, and Nigeria. To say I was a little jealous of her is a bit of an understatement. I loved this aspect of the story because through Chanel’s writing, I felt like I was right there with her characters. The imagery was beautiful and even though I have never been to these exciting places outside of my dreams, I truly felt like I was there.I absolutely adored the characters we met throughout the book. All of Maggie’s friends are coming from different walks of life. Fleur is this stuck-up, beautiful rich girl. But the more you get to know her, the more you learn she is really a great friend once she lets you in. Mya is funny and supportive but underneath the brave face, she is struggling through parental issues. And Samir, well where to even begin with him. Maggie says a few times in the book that he is hard to figure out and honestly, that couldn’t be more accurate. On the outside he is this hot, rich player but as him and Maggie slowly get closer, the more you see that there is more to Samir than his sly grin and effortless shrug. Maggie and all of her friends couldn’t be more different from one another but I appreciated and grew to love themIt wouldn’t be a story about a girl figuring herself out in a new, exciting city without a little romance, right? Maggie and Samir have an attraction to one another from their very first meeting but it is an attraction that Maggie tries to fight with all that she has. Despite her best efforts though, Maggie and Samir always seem to find a way to each other time and time again. Samir makes a pass at Maggie, Maggie gets embarrassed and/or angry, she says something sassy to him, he counters back, there may or may not be kissing involved. Rinse, wash, repeat. The banter and back and forth between these two was so much fun and it had me wishing for more of it. While I loved that their relationship was filled with fun moments, there were a lot of hard moments too. They both are fantastic at pushing one another away, they both know how to push buttons, and they both know when to walk away from something truly great. Despite all of this though, I absolutely adored that they didn’t have a picture perfect relationship. It, pretty much like everything else about this book, seemed very real to me.I See London by Chanel Cleeton was an adventure of a book. The setting was brilliantly written and it made me feel like I was the one taking classes in London and vacationing in places like Paris for spring break. The relationships and friendships that were created between the well-developed characters were very realistic and Chanel wrote it in a way that made me feel like I was part of their little group too. This book was definitely an enjoyable read and I cannot wait to see where the next book takes Maggie, Samir, and all of their friends!