Book Review: Diva (The Flappers #3) by Jillian Larkin

Diva (The Flappers #3) by Jillian Larkin

Release Date: 10th July 2012

Publisher: The Inkhouse
Format: Paperback
Pages: 306
Rating: 3.5/5.0

This book was read as part of the 2014 RC and 2014 SSC

Summary from Goodreads:

"Parties, bad boys, speakeasies—life in Manhattan has become a woozy blur for Clara Knowles. If Marcus Eastman truly loved her, how could he have fallen for another girl so quickly? Their romance mustn't have been as magical as Clara thought. And if she has to be unhappy, she's going to drag everyone else down to the depths of despair right along with her.

Being a Barnard girl is the stuff of Lorraine Dyer's dreams. Finding out that Marcus is marrying a gold digger who may or may not be named Anastasia? A nightmare. The old Lorraine would have sat by and let the chips fall where they may, but she's grown up a lot these past few months. She can't bear to see Marcus lose a chance for true love. But will anyone listen to her?Now that the charges against her have been dropped, Gloria Carmody is spending the last dizzying days of summer on Long Island, yachting on the sound and palling around with socialites at Forrest Hamilton's swanky villa. Beneath her smile, though, Gloria's keeping a secret. One that could have deadly consequences . . ."

Review:

Being the shortest book in this trilogy, I feel like I can sum this up with just a couple of words - it was just alright. There was nothing spectacular about this ending, nothing unexpected. All the character's ended up where you'd expect them to, in what is essentially just 300 pages of tying up lose ends. Character's are redeemed, couples end up together, everything ends exactly as you would have predicted it. Which makes for a fairly boring read, to be honest.

I did enjoy this story, but it was just following the motions. After falling completely in love with Vixen, and finding Ingenue a bit forgettable, it's a shame that this series came to a close with something so blasé. Let's take the Marcus and Clara storyline for example. After breaking up in Ingenue, Marcus is on the rebound and is engaged to some girl named Anastasia. As it turns out, Anastasia isn't all she claims to be. Which could have lead to an interesting storyline...if we heard a bit more from Anastasia. Besides one confrontation between her and Clara and Lorraine, you don't hear anything from her. Maybe exploring that storyline could have done more than just be the catalyst for Clara and Marcus getting back together, and Lorraine getting her redemption. There is another storyline in there, involving new character's, that could be interesting to some, but I didn't care enough about these character's lives to care much about their ending. So overall, blasé. 

In the end, I think this book was just lacking what I loved in it's predecessors. The romances and relationships I loved weren't there, with Jerome (Gloria's other half) hardly present at all, and interaction between Marcus and Clara only occurring twice in the book. Even though I knew it was bound to happen, I still enjoyed reading Lorraine's road to redemption. And I just simply adored Melvin. But, that's not enough to pull this book from mediocrity.