Kept – by Elle Field

Original Cover

My own copy

The blurb:

"Did she really just say that? I am fifteen again, except the reality is I am experiencing full parental horror, aged twenty-five. I want to die."

Life hasn't quite worked out how Arielle Lockley imagined it would. Becoming the next Coco Chanel was always her childhood dream, but she's spent the past four years living a dizzying whirl of glitzy parties, luxurious holidays and daily shopping sprees - all paid for by boyfriend Piers - and not doing anything to make her Coco dreams happen.

When the recession hits, it's not just the economy that takes a tumble and Arielle finds herself living back with her parents, on bad terms with Piers, and having a CV that's as welcome as a pair of knock-off Jimmy Choos. And maybe it's the location, but she's also finding unwelcome thoughts of her childhood sweetheart are popping into her head...

What's a girl to do? Can Arielle figure out what it is she now wants to do with her life and move on, or will she be doomed to spend the rest of her life dwelling over her worst mistakes, stuck listening to her parents' embarrassing dinner table talk each night?

My Opinion:

*Book provided by the author in exchange for an honest review*

The story follows Arielle Lockley, a fashionable girl, who likes to party and have fun. Her rich boyfriend Piers gives her everything she wants, but then poof he wants her gone!

She’s back with her parents and is struggling to find a job and do something with her life. I have to say, I had some difficulties relating to her. Everything seemed so easy for her and her behaviour just didn’t make sense to me. On the other hand I really enjoyed reading about her life, her men and everything else, it was definitely very entertaining and included a lot of drama, excitement, spark and misunderstandings.

When her childhood sweetheart suddenly stands in front of her again, she is really tempted and the story gets very interesting. Again, I didn’t like some of her actions and I got confused with her thoughts and feelings.

One other thing I was struggling with was the flow of the storyline, everything happened so fast and as soon as they fought, everything was okay again. I felt that there were some details missing and that the story wasn’t complete, which was a bit of a pity, because I think that the message behind this story is incredible.

It’s the journey of a woman, learning that not everything falls into your lap in life. One has to be honest, work hard and be willing to fight and take risks. Arielle also had to figure out what she really wants in life. The closer we got to the end of the book, the more I liked her, because she finally realised what was important to her.

In my opinion, the romance between her and Piers and also her feelings for her childhood were not well lined out. One second she was in love with Piers, the other minute she was thinking about her first love – confusing and irritating.

Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the book very much, there are so many laugh out loud moments in it and Elle’s writing is young, fresh and bubbly :)

The supporting characters were great, especially Ob, I think he added an extra spark to it and I really liked how their friendship was portrayed.

The settings and the surroundings were described in a vivid and exciting way. Kept is a bubbly and very entertaining chicklit novel, I can’t wait to see what Elle has come up with next!

Rating:

My possible cast:

Arielle: Lauren Conrad

Piers: Josh Hartnett

Elle on Twitter: @ellefie

Website: http://ellefield.blogspot.co.uk