Early Review: Love and Chaos

Author: Gemma Burgess
Publication Date: February 25, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Series: Brooklyn Girls # 2

Wild child and secret romantic Angie wakes up in a hotel room with $3,000 and no memories of the night before. Her best friends aren’t talking to her, she can’t get a job in fashion, her parents are divorcing, and she’s about to turn twenty-three. And life is about to get much worse.

Brooklyn Girls: Love and Chaos continues the story of our five favorite grads sharing a brownstone and starting out in New York City through Angie’s eyes. On a journey from private jets and yacht parties to dirty subways and hipster bars via crazy storms, flash floods, and retail jobs from hell, Angie discovers who she is, what she wants, how she’s going to get it —and a crazy little thing called true love.

Meanwhile, her roommates lives are imploding, too. Coco’s self-medicating and self-loathing, Pia’s breaking up and cracking up, Madeleine’s finding her voice and Julia might—just might—have met someone she can actually date.

Brooklyn Girls is the hilarious, inspiring Gemma Burgess series every twenty-something has been waiting for that tells you that whatever you do, whatever mistakes you make, everything is going to be okay. All you need is a little luck, a little work, and your best friends.

I was really going to be somebody by the time I was twenty-three.

Sighing. I reach into my nightstand where there’s always my latest Harlequin, M&M’s, cigarettes, and Belvedere vodka.

“Mazel tov! Welcome to the club. Let’s celebrate.”

Never again. Never, ever again. I’m staying single. Forever. I’m staying away from all dudes. Especially rich kids and liars.

This series captivated me in the summer of last year, and I am still hoping and praying that Gemma Burgess writes an installment for each girl mentioned so far: Pia, Angie, Coco, Julia, and Madeline! This book tells Angie’s story, a character that I did not think I would like at all after the first book. Angie is definitely the wild child that doesn’t care too much what anyone else thinks about her, maybe with the exception of her best friend Pia. Pia completely stole my heart in the last book, and I think that is why this book didn’t seem as good to me. Angie was still a lot more likeable than I gave her credit for. Her life, much like the Pia’s life in the start of the last book, is in shambles and it feels that nothing is going right for her. However, things take a turn for the worse when she wakes up one morning in a strange hotel with an envelope that contains $3,000 on her nightstand! Oh, Angie, what have you gotten yourself into?!

Angie is just no Pia in my eyes. I tried my best not to hold that against her, and by the end of the book I actually found myself liking her and wanting her to succeed and turn her life around. The book had a bit of a slow start for me, but the action definitely starts to pick up after the first chapter. Angie is a complete mess at the beginning of this book and a lot of her characteristics are self-destructive, which is similar to feelings I believe a lot of twenty something year old women face. She has pretty much hit rock bottom and a lot of events occur that make her own friends question her stability. She is quite an inspiration, even though I found myself questioning a lot of her actions!

I am so excited for the next book in this series! I have no idea when it is coming out, but I really hope it is Julia’s story because that girl needs to lighten up! These books are incredible if you are looking for something to get you out of a reading slump or if you want to pass the day with your nose buried in a book. They are extremely fast reads and will have you turning the pages at lightning speed. They are so light and airy and just allow me to get lost with no care for the time! I highly recommend them!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Griffin in exchange for my honest review***