Pulling Princes (Calypso Chronicles)

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious Addition to the Teen Fiction Genre
Review: Calypso Kelly has always wanted to fit in with the popular, posh girls at her British Boarding School, but her non-Brit ways, and the fact that she's an American student from LA with not-so-much money, keeps her from doing just that. But this term, Calypso plans on changing that by pretending that her Mother's gay personal assistant, Jay, is her boyfriend. What she didn't expect is that the small white lie would work, and that she would be turned into Miss Popularity overnight. But then everything goes awry, for her photo is snapped, and she appears on the cover of every British tabloid kissing Prince Freddie, England's most eligible royal. Now Calypso is forced to try to change this total calamity into a winning situation, in order to save her reputation, and possible relationship with Freddie.

Teen fiction has been one of my favorite genres for years, and I must admit that Tyne O'Connell's addition to the genre with PULLING PRINCES, is definitely a worthy contribution. PULLING PRINCES is on the level of Meg Cabot's THE PRINCESS DIARIES, and Kate Brian's THE PRINCESS AND THE PAUPER. Her effort is filled with hilarious situations between the main protagonist - Calypso - and the many snotty, rich, and at times, downright vicious girls she attends school with. Female readers will greatly enjoy this new addition to the teen fiction genre, and will find themselves craving for more Calypso when the book is done.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

Rating:
Summary: Good but a bit confusing
Review: I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was funny and worth reading, but it seemed that it skipped around on emotions really easily, Like Calypso will be all Happy that something happened and then about two paragraphs later, she'll be confused and unhappy, which really confused me a bit. As soon as you figure out what made her so suddenly skip to a different emotion, its a bit easier to understand. But I definately think anyone thats interested, should go ahead and read it =P.

Rating:
Summary: A good beginning of a series
Review: Pulling Princes is the first in "The Calypso Chronicles", and while I'm eagerly anticipating the next books in the series, I've got a few complaints also:

-The book can seem a little unrealistic or over-the-top at times, at least I think so. I know that it is at an English boarding school and they are teenagers (so am I), but I must say I don't know many people that would act like them. Yes, this IS fiction, I know that, but sometimes I found myself thinking "Yeah, right", while I have not experienced this with other books of the same genre.
-On the same line as my last complaint, Calypso goes on and on about deciding between one boy (I can't remember his name, sorry) and the prince, but I can't decide which boy to root for because I feel like we didn't get enough information about how the prince really is.

However, don't click the back button and decide this book isn't worth your time! It's a funny and light read that I did enjoy despite my complaints above. As far as it being worth your money, I can't say, because I asked for it for Christmas since my library didn't have it yet and I thought it looked good. I knew that if I didn't ask for it for Christmas I would forget about it, and now I'm glad I didn't forget it! It was a good teen book, at times over-the-top, but a well written and enjoyable nonetheless. I hope the next book in the series comes out soon!

Rating:
Summary: Calypso Kelly
Review: This book is a very good read, a read one might call a beach read. It is centered around Calypso Kelly, the average teenage girl who desires to fit in and believes a good boyfriend will help her. It is light reading and perfect for anyone who is a pre-teen or teenager. It is filled with the normal teenage scenarios, royalty and of course, very strange names. Calypso? Arabella? Poppy? I believe this book is very good and I could not put it down! It was definitely one of my top 20 books I've ever read!

Rating:
Summary: Not Developed
Review: This could've been a great book if it had been developed. I became extremely confused because the writer kept jumping from one event to another. The main character, Calypso, is a teenage leper when suddenly she becomes extremely popular and finds out that it just so happens that the head popular girl is actually being mistreated by a fellow popular girl who is the real horrible person who gives the whole group a bad name. Without enough transitional filler to make it understandable, it was just a jumble of nonsense. Another disappointing part is that she falls in the love with, of course, a prince who we never know for sure if he is a jerk or a nice guy. There's too much guesswork that shouldn't be in there.

Ultimately, after I finished reading it, I ran around the house screaming "I want my life back!"