Take A Bow

Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Goodreads Rating: 4.00
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pages: 278
Reviewed by: Nicole

From the fantastic author of The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom & Prejudice comes a story of all the drama and comedy of four friends who grow into themselves at a performing arts high school.
Emme, Sophie, Ethan, and Carter are seniors at a performing arts school, getting ready for their Senior Showcase recital, where the pressure is on to appeal to colleges, dance academies, and professionals in show business. For Sophie, a singer, it's been great to be friends with Emme, who composes songs for her, and to date Carter, soap opera heartthrob who gets plenty of press coverage. Emme and Ethan have been in a band together through all four years of school, but wonder if they could be more than just friends and bandmates. Carter has been acting since he was a baby, and isn't sure how to admit that he'd rather paint than perform. The Senior Showcase is going to make or break each of the four, in a funny, touching, spectacular finale that only Elizabeth Eulberg could perform.

I won this book from Goodreads First Reads. I used to sing and have big dreams of the spotlight which is part of why I entered to win this book.

I will admit that I somewhat delayed reading this book because I used do pageants and acting classes and I used to sing. Part of me didn't really want to go back to that world, but it wasn't all that I thought it would be, so no harm done. I liked that the book jumped back and forth between Emme, Sophie, Carter and Ethan for their point of view. I also really liked that the book started and ended with everyones view of their auditions to get into school and their graduation.

I absolutely hated Sophie, the self-centered singer who only dreams of the spotlight. She made me so mad the entire time that my boyfriend and I were driving home from vacation. It got to a point where I would read certain things she said and I would laugh and tell him "Girlfriend needs to check herself before she wrecks herself." It was almost laughable how easy it was to hate her.

Then there was Ethan who I also didn't like because of just how he was. I found that I actually didn't like any of my narrators because they all had so few redeeming qualities. Ethan was this prodigy who becomes a womanizing alcoholic at 17, but then blames it all on how he really feels. Emme was probably the best, because I loved to follow her as she found herself at Ethan's urging. I found Carter to also be nice, but a cliche as a former child star trying to find himself.

The book was a quick read, but it was really predictable which I didn't love, but I stayed with it and read through to the end because I did want to know what happened, as much as I didn't love my main characters, I still cared about what happened to them, even Sophie. This was my first Elizabeth Eulberg book, and I don't think that its going to be my last.