Review: The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding

Things I know about Reece Malcolm:

1. She graduated from New York University.
2. She lives in or near Los Angeles.
3. Since her first novel was released, she’s been on the New York Times bestseller list every week.
4. She likes strong coffee and bourbon.
5. She’s my mother.

Devan knows very little about Reece Malcolm, until the day her father dies and she’s shipped off to live with the mother she’s never met. All she has is a list of notebook entries that doesn’t add up to much.

L.A. offers a whole new world to Devan—a performing arts school allows her to pursue her passion for show choir and musicals, a new circle of friends helps to draw her out of her shell, and an intriguing boy opens up possibilities for her first love.But then the Reece Malcolm list gets a surprising new entry. Now that Devan is so close to having it all, can she handle the possibility of losing everything?

This book is the dictionary definition of a cushy, cute YA read - not much of a plot, more focused on character and relationship development and I really enjoyed it. This book came along at the perfect time for me, since I had been reading all these really heavy paranormal and dystopian books that are coming out later in the year and I needed something to lighten the tone a little bit and this book did just that.

Devan was a fantastic main character and I really enjoyed reading about her but the true show stealer of this book was Reece Malcolm who is a multi-dimensional character that takes some figuring out, the reader is learning more about her as Devan is, she is not a simple character at all and I liked that about her. Devan figuring out exactly what her mother is like makes up most of the book and I really liked that, adding in the side plots of Reece's budding relationships with rock star Eli and gorgeous singer Sai and Reece's upcoming performance made this book so much better and I really couldn't fault the pacing or writing of this book, so massive kudos to Amy Spalding for her delivery.

I'm not saying this book is absolutely amazing, it's not at all hard hitting and has only teensy bits of angst and I like my cushy teen books to have a little more angst to make the happy moments even better. I'd go as far as to say that this book is ultimately forgettable, but for those few hours when you're reading this book it's pure escapism, and sometimes that is all you need.

Book released 5th February 2013 by Entangled Teen
Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review (NetGalley)