When I was looking at the free list of the amazon kindle books the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Anna Godsberen was offering her novel Bright Young Things for free (but you couldn't get it instantly, you had to pre order it), I had read her The Luxe series previously and after reading the synopsis I knew that I would like it since it is set in the 1920's which I find very interesting. I suspect she has made it free at that point since the sequel came out a few days after!

It is set in 1920's America during the heyday of prohibition, gangsters and speakeasies - just before it all crashes, in the summer of 1929. Therefore we get many historical references, and with it being set in New York there is also many references to this. The Jazz Age was an exciting time, and Letty and Cordelia decide to seize the day and runaway from their sleepy town in Ohio, getting a one way ticket to New York city. At first it's not good for the girls, and they end up separating down very different paths as Cordelia finds her father who is a famous bootlegger and Letty works in bar hoping to be a singer. After they fight they had and the different lives they now lead will they ever live their New York dream together?

I thought this was a really good young adult novel. You could tell who the author was if you had read the luxe series because it was written in a fairly similar style to that, they are both almost like historical versions of gossip girl or such; there's friends and doomed loves and drama! It has a very teen feel to it, but that's not to say that older readers wouldn't enjoy it. However although I didn't mind it, some people may not enjoy the structure of the book; it switches between 3 characters to give different viewpoints which means that you don't get a massive amount of character development, but this may be what the sequel is for. As I said she is releasing a sequel which I will read, but with the ending that there was I didn't feel this was that necessary; I would have had enough closure with just leaving it there because there was no cliffhanger or anything. It is as if she decided to write a sequel after completing and publishing the first book. Bright young things is available for £3.99 on amazon, which isn't really bad since most books seem to have an RRP of £7.99 nowadays!