The Daughters Take the Stage by Joanna Philbin

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Number of pages: 273
This is the third book in The Daughters series and I thought it was the most....not disappointing but repetitive. It's not repetitive of the other two books (not at all! They're all different!) but I felt the story line was dragged out a little too long.
So, in this book we follow Hudson as she tries to step out of her mom's spotlight. Holla Jones is a multi-platinum singer and Hudson wants to start her own album, but her mom always intervenes and changes the sound of the album. Hudson is tired of being under her mom's rule so she assigns her self a "life-coach" (another girl who goes to her school) to help her overcome some of her fears.
Hudson starts off by rebelling her mom in small ways and eventually joins a band without her mother's knowledge. (This is after the fact that Hudson dropped her album because she was so frustrated with her mom)
I don't want to say to much more for fear of spoiling the story, but it goes from there on Hudson's adventures of hiding the band from her mom and coming to terms with the fact that she should stand up for herself more.
It was a great story, don't get me wrong, but I just felt that it could have been sped up a little and some parts could have been left out. I also connected with this book the least (I think the one before this is by far my favorite so far, but I'm still waiting to read the fourth one in the series!!)
Can't wait for the next book, I love this series more and more with each book that is produced!
See you soon!
Paige

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The Daughters Break the Rules by Joanna Philbin

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Number of pages: 276
Once again Joanna Philbin does an excellent job with her writing! In this second installment to the Daughter series, we follow Carina Jurgensen around on her adventures. Carina is the daughter of the billionaire Karl Jurgensen, and when Carina puts some incriminating information about him on the Web he sends her to California. Once in California, however, her mother's attorney alerts Karl that he cannot move Carina according to court order so they travel back to New York where he cuts her off; no credit cards, no money, no driver, nothing.
She starts out with a $20 a week allowance, and it's actually quite hilarious to see how she has to deal with being "penniless" (I think this book has some underlying tones of money management in it, and kind of shows people that money isn't everything).
So, Carina gets a job as a party planner and we see how she hides from people the fact that she's penniless and can't afford to hire people for this party. It was also nice to see how she dealt with the social pressures of her high school; even though she is famous, she is portrayed as an everyday girl who has to go through the same things that other girls go through everyday.
This book had a lot more ups and downs than the first book and it was just as fun to read. It also focuses more on just Carina and not so much the other girls. There's more cat fights between the friends too which I wasn't expecting at all. However, it was nice to see that they are human, and have fights just like the rest of us.
Overall, a great read and I can't wait for the next one (actually, I already started it!!). I can't wait to see how the characters grow even more in the next two books!
See you soon!
Paige

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The Daughters by Joanna Philbin

Read a synopsis here!
Number of pages: 275
This is actually my second read through of this book! (And it was just as good as I remembered!) I read this last year or the year before, but the sequels weren't out yet so when I did purchase the second and third books I had to reread this because I couldn't remember what happened.
So The Daughters follows three teenage girls who are the daughters of famous people. Lizzie Summers is the daughter of a supermodel (Katia Summers, I imagined her like Heidi Klum), Carina Jurgensen is the daughter of a multi-billion dollar father (Karl Jurgensen, I imagined him like Bill Gates..? Or someone else as equally rich), and finally Hudson Jones the daughter of a multi-platinum singer Holla Jones (I imagined her like Whitney Houston or Celine Dion).
Throughout the story we see how the three girls deal with everyday obstacles like school, boys, and their parents but there's always an exciting twist about how the girls will go to Fashion Week or drop thousands of dollars while shopping like it's chump change. (As you know I absolutely love stories where there's tons of name dropping and famous starlets.)
This book in The Daughters series primarily follows Lizzie as she goes through finding herself as a writer and possibly model. We see how she deals with the ruthless individuals in the fashion industry but also manages to stay true to her friends and schoolwork.
The characters seemed so honest in this book. They weren't superficial at all and I felt like I could totally relate to them. It seemed like a true insight into being the daughter of a famous person...(as it should because Joanna Philbin, daughter of Regis Philbin wrote the books!)
The writing style is fantastic and I hope the other books live up to my expectations! I can't wait to continue the series! If you're a fan of The Clique or Secrets of My Hollywood Life series' then you will love this!
See you soon!
Paige

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