Busted - Gina Ciocca
Marisa wasn’t planning to be a snoop for hire—until she accidentally caught her best friend’s boyfriend making out with another girl. Now her reputation for sniffing out cheaters has spread all over school, and Marisa finds herself the reluctant queen of busting two-timing boys.
But when ex-frenemy Kendall asks her to spy on her boyfriend, TJ, Marisa quickly discovers the girl TJ might be falling for is Marisa herself. And worse yet? The feelings are quickly becoming mutual. Now, she’s stuck spying on a “mystery girl” and the spoken-for guy who just might be the love of her life…
Here we go again. This is the third and possibly last book from Gina Ciocca that I have read and will kindly be reviewing for this blog.
It's interesting to see that I have rated her books progressively better since the first book that I read and reviewed by Gina Ciocca.
Anyway, back to the nitty gritty... don't pick this book up if you are expecting a quick and fun read. Yes, it will be quick, but as for fun - well I'll let you be the judge of that.
So far, it seems that I have wasted or spent depending on how you look at it, around 3 days trying, attempting, doing the best I can do to finish this book. Originally, my target goal was around a day or half a day, maybe even a quarter. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Yes, three whole long days just to pull myself together and even attempt finishing the book. I kid you not, one of the most grueling experiences I've had having to read a book.
That's not what miffs me though.
What does annoy me is the fact that the book was not even that good! Of course, I could let it go, but I did waste my time reading it, three whole days I can never get back, on the bright side, I was under the weather with the flu, so it was okay that I spent some time recovering while reading a book.
If I was being nice, then I would say without a doubt, my favorite part of the book is the cover, but that has nothing to do with the actual story and I'm not being nice, I'm being real. Hey, the truth hurts and Busted just didn't come up to snuff.
The target audience for this book is probably around 10 - 13 years old, and I am way older than that, but I'm still in my young adult years, so I can read this without receiving much judgmental stares. I've said this before and I will repeat myself now by saying it again, "Gina Ciocca is not the most eloquent author", but I do give her credit for showing up.
Honestly, this book had the potential to be quite spectacular, I just wished she had more time to develop it, cultivate the ideas, and plant a much more put together storyline.
Readers like me will be disappointed with the end result, I know I was left needing more and you might be too. Speaking of the ending, it doesn't feel like it concluded well - I wanted to know what became of Marisa and company *literally and figuratively*. Cliffhangers. So not cool or appreciated especially with this genre and grade level of writing.
My overall rating is two out of five stars, not sure if much could change that.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 2/5 Stars