Book: Poseur by Rachel Maude

Rating: 3 Stars

Release Date: February 12, 2008

Summary:
po-+seur (noun): a person who attempts to impress others by assuming or affecting a manner, degree of elegance, sentiment, etc., other than his or her true one.

Charlotte Beverwil, Janie Farrish, Melissa Moon, and Petra Greene don’t hang out together at Winston Prep and they wouldn’t be caught dead dressing like one another. But what they do share in common is a fierce passion for fashion. So when these four sophomores are put in a class together to create their own fashion label, they Clash with a capital C. Janie thinks Melissa and Charlotte are rich poseurs who put on airs and spend thousands to buy their images from famous designers. They think Janie’s just a Valley poseur trying to fit in where she doesn’t belong. And Petra couldn’t care less about any of the above. Can a nostalgic francophile, a mousy punk, a ghetto-glam egomaniac and an idealistic hippie make beautiful couture together? The Christian Louboutin stilettos are about to fly and only style will come out on top.

Overall:
Janie Farrish, Charlotte Beverwil, Melissa Moon, and Petra Greene all come from different worlds. Janie is the tall, gawky girl who never sees her true potential. Charlotte is the American girl who wishes she was French. Melissa is the gangsta who grew up in Bel Air. Petra is the pot smoking, save the animals type. Now what do these four girls have in common?

Fashion. All of them have something to do with it, whether they design it, sew it, want it, or protest it. When the students find out they must create their own special studies, Petra, Janie, Charlotte, and Melissa focus their ideas on fashion. Sadly, none of them have good enough ideas to make into a class but with all their ideas together, it might be possible.

Will four girls with only one thing in common be able to bond and create their own fashion label or will all their ideas crash and burn?

I was a little diosappointed by this book. Going into it I thought I woould love it but it wasn’t what I expected. It resembles Gossip Girl with it’s underage drinking and drugs, which was my least favorite part. I don’t know why all books these days seem to involve underage alcohol and drug use. This is a warning for anybody who doesn’t like that theme in a book.

My other complaint were the characters. All of them seemed kind of whiny, in their own separate ways. It seemed to fit into the story at parts but a lot of it seemed unneccesary.

Of course, all I have to say is not bad. Rachel Maude does a wonderful job giving all the characters their own personalities. Even the background characters who aren’t seen very much are described in great detail. I was very impressed with the character descriptions and the fashion descriptions. Being all about fashion, I knew this book would go into great detail about the clothes and accessories of the characters but I was amazed at how descriptive the author got. I could picture every outfit and accessory throughout the whole book and the pictures helped too. They made the book more like a fashion journal.

In the end, the good points seem to weigh out the bad and I would recommend this for a fun summer read. The second book is also out now and I should be starting that one soon.

Poseur can be ordered here.

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