The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

Summer is here, and 16-year-old Allie, a self-professed music geek, is exactly where she wants to be: working full-time at Berkeley’s ultra-cool Bob and Bob Records. There, Allie can spend her days bantering with the street people, talking the talk with the staff, shepherding the uncool bridge-and-tunnel shoppers, all the while blissfully surrounded by music, music, music. It’s the perfect setup for her to develop her secret identity as The Vinyl Princess, author of both a brand-new zine and blog. From the safety of her favourite place on earth, Allie is poised to have it all: love, music and blogging.

Her mother, though, is actually the one getting the dates, and business at Allie’s beloved record store is becoming dangerously slow—not to mention that there have been a string of robberies in the neighbourhood. At least her blog seems to be gaining interest, one vinyl junkie at a time….

Review:

I have to admit that I had tried to read The Vinyl Princess several times before giving up because of the lackluster beginning, but recently I pushed myself through it, and as it turns out it just gets better and better from that point. A great discovery, no?

The Vinyl Princess tells the story of Allie, a girl who considers herself to be the official Vinyl Princess. It's summertime and Allie's looking forward to a relaxing summer filled with music, hanging out with her best friend, thinking of her crush, and working at her Bob and Bob Records, her favorite music store. Though, as it turns out not everything is working out in her way. Bob and Bob Records is doing badly this year, there has been a string of robberies around the area which has left her worried, her mom has started dating again, her best friend is going through a bad breakup, and Allie just meet a really cute annoying guy at the record store. Leaving her to wonder will things get better?

Allie's just your ordinary teen girl. She has her problems, her interests, and her quirks, which made her even more relatable in my opinion. I especially loved the fact that she was a fellow blogger, though for music instead of books. Her friends, as well as her regular consumers at the Bob and Bob records, were funny as well as quirky and unique.

While the plot of this tended to always be a bit predictable, it still was musical goodness that I truly enjoyed. I loved seeing how Allie found out who she really was in this novel and  how a record store runs. Plus, Yvonne's writing proved to move smoothly and quickly, though I do admit there were some slow parts to it.

In all, The Vinyl Princess is a coming of age tale I really enjoyed, one that I highly suggest to all you music lovers out there. In addition, Yvonne Prinz is defiantly an author I will continue to read more by.

Grade: B+

The Vinyl Princess is now out!

Source: Publicist. Thanks, Elyse!