Misunderstood: Secrets of a Teen Queen, from Anya Valentino

Hi, there! Hope everybody is doing just fine on this wonderful Thursday ❤ I’m happy because I just slayed two of my finals, so the world is looking very nice right now, haha!

Today’s book is Misunderstood: Secrets of a Teen Queen and it has a majestic cover! Sweetie Anya Valentino kindly sent me a copy in exchange for an honest review – thank you again! This is it, the moment finally arrived, let’s go!

From my Instagram: a little stop for cover appreciation ❤

The Story

 Enya is the epitome of the queen teen stereotype: she is gorgeous, rich, breathes perfection, has tons of friends, the perfect closet, a beautiful boy that would do anything for her. Everybody wants to be Enya Utzon. Or almost everybody.

Despite loving her life, Enya yearns for true love – not camaraderie. She wants a consuming and burning love and James seems the perfect boy for her: popular and beautiful just like her, he had that serious way of making stupid jokes that broke Enya with laughter and gave her butterflies in her stomach. The thing is, James just want to be friends.

Enya feels her perfect world shattering when, besides being refused by the boy she loved, Enya is forced to deal with an old enemy that is threatening to bring her shameful past to light. Would people still admire and envy Enya Uzton knowing what she did?

 

The Analysis

 Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion while reading 🙂

 

At first, I was very excited, because I was connecting with Enya. Sometimes, you have to just wear a mask and pretend that you live the perfect life. You have to be cold on what type of company that you want for yourself, if you really want to do something or if you are only doing because everybody is. Enya had this cold side about her that I really liked, it seemed as if she could separate things. Oh, well. She couldn’t. In the end, she bothered me as hell and she narrates the major part of the book, so I had to stick to her. Maybe If I had read this book when I was a bit younger, I would have liked it more, but I think that my gossip girls time is a little behind now. It was an interesting reading nevertheless, but I expected more from Enya and the plot, that also had so much potential and it turned out to be a bit obvious. Anyway, I liked it, so three stars 🙂

The narrative was a point that bothered me a lot in several moments. The way Valentino voiced her characters voices made all of them to appear superficial and loud. In narrative matters, the characters that seemed more human and real to me were James and Mary Kay. Again, the problem was me: some years ago, like when I entered college (whoa, it’s been 4 years already?!), I would have thought that Enya was my popular twin, as I never liked social status, but loved to play with power. I’m not saying that those things changed, but my perception of people’s essences had. I feel like there’s still a whole side of Enya that it was left off and hidden by Enya himself on this book and I’ll love to see if she can open up to herself on the next book (yes! Anya is working on a sequel! Isn’t this awesome?!!). I will love to see the characters’ growth, as they all are teenagers, as much as they do grown up things. But I’m missing my point. I liked that Valentino changed views during the book, so we could get a fuller picture and left little to imagination in terms of loose ends. I usually am not a fan of first person narratives, but it worked just fine for Misunderstood 🙂

The plot for the book left me on my toes. What is better than a perfect high school queen with juicy secrets from her past? I was dying to know who was threatening Enya and we can’t have any notion until the half of the book, which is awesome. Valentino shows that, despite everything awful that happens to us, life doesn’t stop, you know? Enya is worried about the messages, but she is partying, going to school, having yoga classes: it is important, but she won’t just curl up in bed and wait for it to go away, just like James and his own problems. Just like us, regular people. That was awesome in the plot, really. What made me a little sad is that we can assume who sent the messages since the first moment that the person is mentioned by Enya. Of course, we still don’t know why, as Enya won’t tell us her secret, so we are still left with mystery as why the person is doing that and what the hell Enya did.

I recognize that I am a very skeptical person, so I’m not easily surprised when I’m already expecting something. Like, you tell me that the last Harry Potter movie was AWESOME before I watch it. I will go to the movies with a big smile on my face waiting for it to be AWESOME. Then, it is just a really good movie and I’m like: “meh” (#truestory). Unfortunately I built a big expectative on Enya’s secret and the anti-hero’s motives so, when it all started to surface, I was like: “that’s it?”. Valentino did a great job on leaving her reader second guessing everything and everyone, but I got disappointed on what was the big secret, haha!

Bonus point: part of the book is set on Denmark, Enya’s home country. The descriptions are perfect and you almost feel like you are there with Enya and her girls, just relaxing and enjoying only the best things that Copenhagen can offer ❤

Valentino’s characters made me think of a very important aspect from teenage: sometimes, we desperately want to be something or someone, but we don’t reign in to our wishes, fearful of our “friends” judgment. Moreover, while growing up, this makes perfect sense, as we HAVE TO fit in somewhere – and if this “where” is on the popular’s table, the better. Enya, for example, is a typical teenager in her worries: the guy she likes stops by unannounced and she is worried that she is in sweatpants. James desperately wants to hang out with people with more content than Enya and their group, but doesn’t have the heart to speak up his mind, afraid of losing his position as one of the most popular boys in school. Victoria dates James to get closer to Enya. Brett will do anything for they group to remain intact. This is teen life: the eternal search for the perfect fit and never knowing if you are already there. If you feel like you found your spot, then you grew up, haha 😀

As I said at first, I had everything to be Enya’s best friend If she only admitted how shallow her life could be and how mean she was to make a position at times. There is so not anything wrong with those things! No one lives in paradise, as much as they pretend so. We have good and bad moments, that’s why it is called life and not Disney movie (ps: this is not a critic, I love Disney movies <3). True control only comes with acceptance of the truth about you and who you are. Then, you can create the perfect lie. I’m really excited to read the next book, as Enya life will be at college!

Overall, this book is a good gossip girls styled novel. If you like young adult romances, high school dramas and such, you totally need to read this ❤

That’s it! Thank you again for sending me Misunderstood, Anya! Great job! And, of course, thanks for reading! Do you like high school set books??