Review: Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

3 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Harperteen

Goodreads Synopsis:

Paradise wasn't supposed to suck.

Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean.
Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all.
It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.
It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn't have to be a jerk just because people think he's one.
It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.
And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise. . . .
From confused to confident and back again, one thing's certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.

Review:

I didn't like this book at first, but it grew on me a little by the end. The rating would have been lower otherwise.

The book is about four different people, and it changes characters as it changes months, which it does four times. I thought this was a bit of an odd way to do it, and was wondering how that would work out, but it's done very well.

We start with Jena, who is on vacation with her family and Skye's family. Her and Skye aren't very close, and she's very jealous of Skye, who is an actress. She also meets Dakota, who is a jerk to her, and just glimpses Owen, who is obviously better for her. I did not like her in her chapters, at all. She was way too insecure. I guess some people are this way, and I'm insecure myself, but she was overwhelmingly so. She was always embarrassed about herself, and looking down on herself, whining about it. I could not stand it, and I almost wanted to stop reading because of it.

In the next part, it's in Dakota's point of view. He was a jerk in the first part, but we get to see inside of him in this one. He has more to him, but I still didn't like him too much. He was still a bit of a jerk. He got better at the end of it, redeemed himself a bit, but he was mostly just alright.

Next was Skye. She's an actress, who's been secretly been having a hard time with herself and life. It's mentioned in Jena's chapters that someone had been leaving not good notes in places, and we find out that they're from her. She's a bit fragile, and the end of her part leaves off with a cliffhanger, which we find out the answer to in Owen's chapters. I was hoping to like her more, and she did have some of what I was looking for, but not as much as I'd hoped.

The last part is Owen's. I did like Owen. He mostly stays to himself, and mostly online, as he has a blog. He's been talking to Jena online, and he finds out who she is, and that she knows his brother, which makes him a bit wary, but he decides to meet up with her. Normally, this would be a very bad idea, but since the reader already knows Jena, I wasn't too worried. Besides worrying that it wouldn't work. But he meets up with her, and is very adorable, and Jena is much more confident about herself. She's apparently gotten some good advice, and has been helping Skye out, and has decided to believe in herself.

The ending was very good, and satisfying, especially since I got to meet Owen, who is a cute, geeky/nerdy, inexperienced boy. And it made the rating go up, since I didn't especially enjoy the previous parts of the book.

And I don't know if Mackler wrote the characters like that on purpose, and I'm sure that some of it was, but it also could have been done better so that they were at least a bit more likable. I haven't read any of her other books, and I'm undecided on whether or not I will, (even though I know that I probably will give her another try at some point,) so I don't know if that just how she writes. I'm hoping that some of her other books are better, or at least have more likeable characters.