Screen Queens By Lori Goldstein Book Review

“Because that was how they were all related. The women that came before, the women of now, and the ones to come.

All empowered.

For the future they’d create.”

(pg. 355)

About

Author: Lori Goldstein

Genre: Young Adult

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Synopsis

This summer Silicon Valley is a girls’ club.

Three thousand applicants. An acceptance rate of two percent. A dream internship for the winning team. ValleyStart is the most prestigious high school tech incubator competition in the country. Lucy Katz, Maddie Li, and Delia Meyer have secured their spots. And they’ve come to win.

Meet the Screen Queens.

Lucy Katz was born and raised in Palo Alto, so tech, well, it runs in her blood. A social butterfly and CEO in-the-making, Lucy is ready to win and party. 

East Coast designer, Maddie Li left her home and small business behind for a summer at ValleyStart. Maddie thinks she’s only there to bolster her graphic design portfolio, not to make friends.

Delia Meyer taught herself how to code on a hand-me-down computer in her tiny Midwestern town. Now, it’s time for the big leagues–ValleyStart–but super shy Delia isn’t sure if she can hack it (pun intended).

When the competition kicks off, Lucy, Maddie, and Delia realize just how challenging the next five weeks will be. As if there wasn’t enough pressure already, the girls learn that they would be the only all-female team to win ever. Add in one first love, a two-faced mentor, and an ex-boyfriend turned nemesis and things get…complicated. 

Filled with humor, heart, and a whole lot of girl power, Screen Queens is perfect for fans of Morgan Matson, Jenny Han, and The Bold Type.

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To my Screen Queens,

What really sold me on this book was the fact that it sounded like Scream Queens, which was a show on TV for a hot minute before it got cancelled. But then I looked at the title and then I looked at the cover and I was sold for a completely different reason. There are three strong, diverse females on the cover!!! I’m here for it! Then I read the synopsis and the plot sounded even better.

From what I gauged it gave me a very realistic sense of what it means to live in a patriarchal and sexist world where women are treated as objects and where they aren’t seen as getting the “male dominated” jobs. What I mean by this is when people think of the word women and work, they think of nurses, teachers, mothers, baristas, all these typical “women” jobs. They never imagine a scientist, an environmentalist, an engineer, a coder, a designer—–never a female boss beach (I don’t swear, so beach is all we’re going to say today friends 😉). Society doesn’t associate women with these “male” jobs. BUT WHO THE HECK SAID THAT MALES AND FEMALES HAVE TO WORK A CERTAIN JOB?!!!?!? Just because you’re a man you can’t be a nail tech or just because you’re a woman you can’t be a technology guru? The HECK with what the world thinks because what a woman can do, a man can do, and what a man can do a woman can do!

So that’s what got me to read this book because I LOVED the idea of three teenage girls who were all into technology, coding, graphic design, and leadership and how they set their efforts to design this app at a prestigious school. I feel like in the media and books, there’s hardly ever talk about women doing these kinds of professions, so it was completely refreshing to have that. While I read this book, it just kept me thinking how the media really doesn’t represent jobs the best. It’s something talked about in the book as well, but when we see pictures of scientists, we think of a man, whether it be Newton or Einstein or when we think of successful tech men we think of a man like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. It’s never a woman. And that’s what really got me thinking because NO WAY IN HECK has there never been a woman in any of these professions——there had to be women. But we don’t see them or hear about them. Heck, this book mentioned Ada Lovelace, one of the first computer programmers, and I was like, I NEVER, NEVER heard of her. Not because she’s not significant, because gosh knows she darn is, but it’s because I grew up in a society that praises men and not women. I’ve never heard of Ada Lovelace and her contributions because I live in a freaking world that doesn’t give women credit when credit is due 😐 Heck, we don’t hear about women scientists do we? We don’t hear about women engineers or philosophers or whatever? WE NEVER HEAR ABOUT WOMEN! How can we do that? Literally, how can we live in a world where we oppress women because we think them lesser than men. Newsflash, women are just as and MORE powerful than men. That’s the honest to gosh darn truth and it just gets me so worked up how underrepresented women are.

But you’re probably not here to hear me rant about the patriarchy and the sexism in our world, no, you’re here to read a book review. So let’s review shall we?

Lucy is like sushi. If you’re not acquainted with it or used to it, you really don’t like it at first, but then the more you eat it, you grow to like it, but not all that much depending on your culture and who you are. That’s not to say I don’t like sushi, I’m just trying to make this an interesting comparison 🤪 At first, I didn’t really like Lucy all that much and I still kind of didn’t like her to a fault. She’s okay. In the beginning she came across really self-entitled, selfish, and a bit too controlling for my liking. I think that’s not her fault though because she grew up with a mom who kind of neglected her and I feel like Lucy’s controlling and selfish ways stemmed from her always fending for herself and feeling like she had to live up to the great Abigail Katz who was this tech person too; She had all this pressure on her shoulders to be “like her mom” or follow in her footsteps or else she felt like a fail to her mom. So there’s that.

I also didn’t like how obsessive Lucy was with Pulse. At first, I was confused as to what the heck Pulse was because the book just starts off with the whole idea of if you have this Pulse you’re Crushing It! or you’re Thumping and I was lost, but then I realized Pulse is kind of like Instagram in how a person’s status matters based on who they know and their likes, I guess. It’s an interesting concept that really makes you think about how in some ways it truly is like social media today where people are obsessed with having the most likes on a photo or the most followers. Most likes means your pulse is “crushing it.” Maybe it’s a satirical look at all the liking we seem to do. It was also crazy to see how a person’s status on Pulse could literally make or break them. It’s crazy that an app would have that sort of power.

One of the things I didn’t really love about Lucy-like was how when she figured out her Valley group, she texted them nonstop. If I got those texts from Lucy, I would have silenced my phone because gosh gracious that would be annoying. I also found it funny how she had violet scented disinfectant wipes for her dorm. I can’t judge her there. Her whole reaction to the dorms was relatable, but the level of shock Lucy had was like no other. I think she was expecting a five star hotel. Hate to break it to you Lucy—dorms are like cabin grounds 😅 I didn’t like when she claimed both beds and how she told rather than asked Delia or Maddie. Which brings me to what I TRULY didn’t like about Lucy. When Lucy wanted to impress the “great” Ryan Thompson, she changed their dog idea to these Lit idea, which I might add wasn’t even that great of an idea, but just the fact that she created this app by herself and spoke about it without talking it through with her teammates really got to me because it’s like hello, you have a team, you don’t just do what you want. I wanted to slap her because that’s what I felt Delia and Maddie felt as they stood off to the side—–like they were slapped in the face.

What I really liked was the part when they were all mad at Lucy, and Maddie walked away. Delia stayed, but she was like:

“You Put an ‘i’ in ‘team’ again, and I won’t just let Maddie go. I’ll follow her.”

(pg. 62)

I MEAN 👏🏼👏🏼 Put her in her place!!!!

Coming from Delia that was such a big deal and I was kind of shocked she said such a thing to Lucy, but it showed her inner spunk.

Speaking of Delia, let’s talk about sweet Delia, because she’s one of my favorites in this book next to Danny. Delia comes from a family that lives in the middle of America and she grew up doing all the behind the stage things in her family’s theater. Her mom would act, her dad would do the transitions and set up the stage, and her best friend Cassie would also act. Delia was used to being behind the scenes, but then she got the opportunity to go to Valley Start, which was expensive and different for her considering she hardly has ever been away from home. When she got there, she didn’t even have sheets because she didn’t know she needed to bring some and my heart just melted for her because she’s such a humbled, innocent girl and you truly just want to hug her from all the hate in the world. While at Valley Start, she also worked a job heating up Hot Pockets, which I found again, humbling, but the job itself was kind of weird. Why couldn’t people heat up their own Hot Pockets? It’s not hard 😂 I wonder how much she got paid? I could heat up Hot Pockets! Anyway, that’s not the point, but I just loved how she was a hard worker and she always honored her family and thought about them.

The thing with Delia though was she felt like she never belonged at Valley Start, but I just wanted to take her aside and tell her how much she did belong. She got into the school and that within itself proved how good she was at what she did. But I think Delia felt guilty for chasing after her dream and leaving her parents behind because she knew it cost them money, and coupled with the fact that her parents were now selling their childhood theater, it was harder for her to feel good about being in Valley Start. She felt guilty ever since she left them because I think she internalized that her dream literally cost her parents their dreams and they had to give it up for her. But it was her parents’ decision to sell to start a new dream and I liked that. I just really wanted Delia to know that she had nothing to prove to them or to anyone because she was a gosh darn good coder. She taught herself and she even created all these apps and games that no one could do easily unless you were really talented at it. I think she didn’t see herself as talented also because she didn’t grow up a creative environment with others who understood what she did. I know I cannot create an app. So go Delia!

What also made me love Delia a lot more was how she could relate to so many people who live with anxiety. Throughout the book, Delia has panic attacks where she feels like she can’t breathe and afterwards, she feels embarrassed for it and I just wanted to, again, hug her! There was nothing for her to feel embarrassed about because anyone in her situation would feel that stress, but what I kind of want to know is if this was normal for her or did the panic attacks only start because she was at Valley Start? I think that would help her understand what triggers her anxiety and how she could handle it in those situations. I don’t know, I can’t personally say much about anxiety because I am not medically diagnosed with anxiety or all that knowledgeable about it, but if you do live with anxiety, I hope you surround yourself with good love and good people who will be there for you and I hope you know that even if it doesn’t feel like it, things will be okay.

I liked how Eric was there for Delia.

Eric?!

Who’s Eric?

Delia’s Hot Pocket friend 😉

I’m joking. But he works next to her and they go to Valley Start together. They were the only romance in this book and it was such a simple, cute relationship between two people who loved technology and coding. It was very cute how they would blush in each other’s presence or text each other. But I especially loved how he was there for her when she had a panic attack and he didn’t judge her for it, but helped her through it. I mean, get you a man! I also liked how he helped her throughout the whole program and was there for her when she needed a shoulder to talk to or a person to bounce ideas off of. They were a good team.

The last team member of the Screen Queens was Maddie.

Maddie’s someone who’s also a lot like sushi. I didn’t completely like her either. She was a lot more sarcastic, reserved, distant, and eh. Eh in the fact that she was kind of the messy one of the three and she didn’t do anything unless she was coerced into it or she absolutely had to. So like an eh, like the sound you make when you don’t really want to do something but you do it anyway because you have to. I kind of didn’t like her “friendship” with Lucy in the beginning, but I think she liked Delia more because Delia was middle ground and didn’t have a commanding personality like Lucy. Maybe that’s why Lucy and Maddie butt heads at times—-who am I kidding, a lot of the times. I think over time Maddie warmed up to them in knowing that they were a team; I think that’s who Maddie is though and how she has to warm up to people.

Something Lucy and Maddie share is having complicated friendships and family relationships. Maddie’s parents haven’t gotten along for a while and they are getting divorced. I also found it off-putting that the parents talked through their own daughter via an assistant, which is something Lucy had to deal with also. I also truly felt for Maddie when she yelled over the phone to her mom about not getting Danny those socks. That part just broke my heart for her. Or when her parents never said happy birthday to her. Who forgets their own child’s birthday? Or the fact that they didn’t even tell her that the mom was going to move Danny and them to New York to live with her. I just didn’t understand how the mom couldn’t communicate with her on that. It’s just sad how Lucy and Maddie felt the same things with their parents in never having close relationships and feeling somewhat abandoned to fend for themselves, which really does affect a person. I think not having that close relationship with her parents made her closed off to the world in feeling like she had no one who cared for her, so she pushed people away. It’s not easy for Maddie to let people in when they’ve hurt her. There was this part that talked about how she had friends in the past who thought because she was Asian, she would be super smart and how it was all “false advertising” (pg. 72). That just made me MAD! As an Asian, it hurts when people say that you should be smart because society depicts Asians as intelligent, but Asian’s aren’t geniuses and it kind of highlights how messed up our perceptions of different cultures are based on what the media portrays it as. I also just really hurt for Maddie because she was used by her “friends.” Her parents were book cover designers and they designed the books for Esme Theot, a popular author, and the “friends” thought they could get in with the author to movies or exclusive merchandise if they were her friends. And I was shaking my head because they even called her boring. I don’t like people who are fake friends or users. But it explained why Maddie didn’t like people—–because she had a history of people who made assumptions about her and used her. Her last friend also didn’t help anything! She stole her idea for an app, sold it, and profited from it without giving Maddie any credit. I mean, I wouldn’t trust people either if I got used like that so many times. I just hurt for Maddie more than words can describe.

I guess when I understood more about her, I liked her a lot more because I could see how it wasn’t her, but her circumstances that toughened her up and to be skeptical. The thing that I truly liked about Maddie was her love for her brother. There is no other book that I think does a sister-brother relationship as good as this one. You can tell how much Maddie loves her brother and how she would do anything and everything to see him happy. In that respect she acts like a parent to Danny and I admire that because Danny didn’t have it easy with the parent situation either, but he did have a gosh darn good sister to be there for him. I also liked the story of her four leaf clover and how she found it the day Danny was born and she kept it as a necklace for good luck. I liked how all the girls had their own necklaces from the chipboard Delia’s dad gave her to the Star of David that was passed down in Lucy’s family. I truly loved the ending when Danny made a surprise appearance at Demo Day after saying he couldn’t come because he would be at camp still and then by then he would have flown to New York. The utter shock on Maddie’s face was priceless and sweet because it really emphasized the love she had for her brother. I loved that ❤️.

She also went to Valley Start for her brother because she felt that it was the only way she could get into a good college close to him. In some ways, I think Maddie needed to hang out with people her own age and not live her life revolved around her brother, but as a sibling that can be hard to do, so I understood that. But Maddie’s selfless in that way in how she did everything for her brother. She also clicked with Sadie. Maddie really is good with kids. I liked how she was there for Sadie at her dance recital even if she accidentally slept through it. Maddie still went afterwards because she knew Sadie’s brother missed her and she wanted to be there for Sadie. I think part of her liked Sadie because she reminded her of Danny.

At first, these girls could not get along. They would barely talk to each other or they would try to overpower one another. They were going to split up until Nishi their advisor told them to go to this daycare to help kids and if they wanted to still split up they could. But going to that day center really relaxed all of them and made them see how in their element they were with being a leader (Lucy), talking about coding (Delia), and designing (Maddie). Their strengths made them realize they all had something to bring to the table; They could be a team if they worked together. They also bonded over the fact that they wanted to be the first all female group to win and if anyone could I think they could.

I liked how as the book progressed you could see them start to bond over creating an app they liked. In some ways, I didn’t like Lit because it had a weird-ish concept that if it were a real life app, I wouldn’t personally download, but I just liked how they were able to work together to get things done. Granted it was hard because Lucy would be on their case to do this or do that and they would have to work harder. It kind of made Maddie and Delia resentful because it seemed like all Lucy would do was boss them around. Their app got 10th place during a trial round midway through the program, and during this time Lucy was also frustrated because her Pulse was still low and there was the whole Emma scandal of her Crushing It! to being low and then leaving the program.

It’s because of freaking Ryan Thompson 😡.

He’s like uncooked chicken nugget—–unclassy, disgusting, and THE LOWEST OF THE LOW 🤧.

He owned Pulse.

Ironic for a narcissistic, sexist PIG who had no heart.

If the message wasn’t clear, I don’t like him.

I NEVER liked him.

First, it started with the way we met him and how he touched Nishi in the doorway like they were in a relationship. Part of me thought they were dating, but they weren’t.

Second, was the way he BLATANTLY brushed up against Lucy multiple times. THOSE WERE NOT CASUAL TOUCHINGS, LUCY!!!!! She is not a petting zoo!!! 😤

I wanted to slap his hands away and tie them behind his back because you do not touch a girl unless she tells you too!!!! GET SOME CLASS, YOU APP! I could not. And Lucy didn’t even think anything of these causal touches at first. But I KNEW!!!!! I HAVE WOMAN INTUITION! When he first touched her hip by accident or something in passing, I was already tallying it off. TICK. Then he made another touch for her somewhere else and I was like NOPE. Then when Lucy saw her with Emma that night at the club and then he talked to her, he touched her and I was like NADA! Then they went on that date and he grabbed for her leg and then started making all these SICK jokes about “getting in bed” with their business and things like that. I was like, “GIRL YOU BETTER JUMP OUT THAT CAR AND RUN!!!” And she did when he touched her leg and she figured out where things were going. I was like RUN GIRL RUN. It’s not like Ryan would be desperate enough to chase after her—–gosh I hope not. I just couldn’t stand him!!!

You know, let’s talk about that. Do you know Keanu Reeves? The guy who did the John Wick movies and was in Always Be My Maybe with Ali Wong? I heard he doesn’t touch women when he takes photos with them because he knows that he shouldn’t touch a girl without her asking for it out of respect. I respect Keanu Reeves as a man because he has grade A manners. Ryan could learn a thing or two from him. But the bigger point is just this idea that some men think that women are property for them to touch. What does a girl gotta do to get some respect? Does she have to walk around with a whistle around her neck, pepper spray in her bag, a pocket knife in her pocket, and now a sign on her chest that says please do not touch ? 😓 It’s a sad, sad world.

Then Ryan had the UTTER AUDACITY to threaten and black mail Lucy by putting Lit up on some shared internet space and saying she stole the idea off of Lit from there. And he did it with Gavin Cox, another one of Lucy’s “good pick” of a guy. The thing about Gavin Cox is, he’s as every bit as arrogant as he sounds. I partly don’t blame him because I feel like with all the characters in this book, he’s truly just a product of his environment, but it still doesn’t excuse his actions. He comes from a family that puts a lot of pressure on him to be the best baseball player or something and his dad’s always on his case to be number one and if he’s not, he’s instantly considered inferior. To Gavin, that’s hard to take in because as a kid you just want to make your parents proud, so I could understand where Gavin was coming from in knowing he had a lot on his shoulders, but I just feel like you should never go behind someone’s back to get ahead because that’s not right. Another sad truth is sometimes cheaters do get ahead in the world, but I’m glad this wasn’t the case. What sucks though, was how Lucy genuinely saw the good in Gavin against her better judgement. She knew he was a grade A dumb-hole and she shouldn’t care about him, but she also knew how he had all that pressure on him and she could relate to him. So Lucy treated him with kindness and hoped he could be better, but he didn’t and that’s what sucked because it sucks when people disappoint you when you think they can change. Lucy didn’t deserve to give him the light of day when he tried to apologize because he was always so rude to her in calling her sexist things and betraying her trust.

I also didn’t like the whole Pulse environment and I thought Lucy, Maddie, and Delia were so right in not wanting to be a part of a company that sexist. I like how they recognized that if they worked for Pulse, they would be working in a place that’s only as good as their leader and since Ryan Thompson owned Pulse, the company wouldn’t be that great. It sucks like a melted popsicle.

And boy were they correct because everyone there was self-entitled males acting like women walked the earth just for them. And don’t even get me started on the housing office guy who praised Ryan Thompson and everything that he couldn’t see how much Lucy and the girls wanted to report Ryan. They truly had to fend for themselves because no one else would listen or care because they weren’t men.

Part of reporting Ryan was the fact that Lucy kind of didn’t want to at first out of respect for the other girls because if she reported the situation, they might get kicked out of the program and that would make things worse for everyone. But then they schemed a way to report him and I was HERE for it 👏🏼. I mean who doesn’t love empowered women speaking up about things? But the thing that got me about the whole situation was how Lucy wasn’t going to report it because she was embarrassed or she chalked it up to be her fault because she was “flirting” or she was in a “tight dress” and it just bothered me so much that she would think that. It was absolutely not her fault!!! It’s disgusting how women always get blamed as the victim because they are “asking for it” by the way they dress. I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was asking to be harassed when I decided to wear a dress that made me feel confident. It’s ridiculous because if a man went out wearing a speedo, he would never get pointed at as a “victim.” Or if a man went out in a tux. Is he asking for it? NO. But somehow when a woman wants to look fine as heck and to be confident, she’s “asking for it.”

WOMEN AREN’T ASKING FOR IT, WE ASK FOR RESPECT!

But Lucy wasn’t flirting for nothing and she didn’t dress for him and the thing is even if she was flirting it’s not like she asked him to touch her or do any of those things. And to any guy or girl out there, just because someone flirts, doesn’t mean it condones touching. You have to ask. It wasn’t her fault and I just wanted to hug her the whole time she was walking home to the dorm room to Delia and Maddie who were so supportive and there for her. I loved how they bonded over this shared predicament and how angry Delia and Maddie were for Lucy. What I was kind of shocked about was how easily Lucy went to work the next day on Lit when they were all sleeping in and trying to give her space, when really she woke them up with fireworks. I guess she tried to pour herself into her work to forget about the night before. Leave it up to Lucy to focus on her work.

Ever since Ryan tried to make a move, the girls really started to delve into Pulse and I loved the little bonding moment between Delia and Maddie when the went to Pulse and meet Natalie to get into the server to figure out how and why Emma (someone Ryan also tried to make a move on) went from Crushing It to a lower Pulse level. Natalie sounded like such a nice girl and I loved how she was like, “We interns have to stick together,” even though they weren’t interns. It was also kind of sad because she was the only girl intern at Pulse, which said a lot.

The whole lead up to the Demo Day was such a fun ride in how the girls came up with their new app concept, which I just fell in love with because it sounded much more authentic and real than Lit. I could relate to the concept more and I feel like others could relate to it as well. I absolutely loved the Demo Day itself and how Sadie was there to support Maddie and how Lucy and Delia flew in Danny as a surprise belated birthday present for her because, of course, Maddie wouldn’t tell anyone her actual birthday, but I liked how they figured it out and did something for her. I also loved the moment when Delia stepped out onto the stage and she spoke about the coding part of the app. Delia wasn’t going to speak—-Maddie was going to say her part—-because Delia’s more of a behind the curtains gal, and has always been, but when Maddie got flustered from seeing her brother, Delia stepped out of the shadows and spoke and everyone was rapt. I just loved that moment for her because she was confident as much as she could be and her parents were just exuding pride. Delia’s parents really are the complete opposite of Maddie’s and Lucy’s and I loved how supportive they were of her dreams even if it was hard for them to be away from her. I also liked how Lucy’s mom actually came to the event unlike Maddie’s parents because it showed that the mom was trying.

Lucy, Maddie, and Delia were not actually supposed to present their app because Ryan threatened them because he had video footage of Maddie and Delia hacking into his network from the time I mentioned above. But Nishi schemed with the girls to do so because she knew they had something good. It kind of reminded me of the scene from Camp Rock when Mitchie wasn’t supposed to sing because she “stole” Tess’s bracelet, but she couldn’t sing until the “end of final jam,” so the guy called her name at the end. Well, that’s what happened here, and Ryan was going to oppose it, but then Nishi sat him back down because she mocked him standing up as excitement and favoritism and he couldn’t make a scene if he wanted to. When Lucy got on stage and mic dropped them all about how Ryan Thompson was a sleaze and then that article came out—–BEST MOMENT of the whole book! The look on Ryan’s face, he should hang that in his acre of an office. Priceless 😂. Served him right for everyone to be disgusted with him and his company. I loved how after Lucy spoke up about it because that couldn’t have been easy to do—-to be so raw and vulnerable to her truth. Especially as a woman because usually woman are degraded for their issues or thought of as “oh, she’s just overreacting” or “her feelings are hormonal.” And it’s a sad world too, where we equate women to hormonal problems when really we have the most self-control out of anyone. I was proud of Lucy. What had me afterwards was how Lucy’s mom went to her crying and tried to reconcile with her daughter in knowing she hadn’t been the best mom, but how she wanted to try to be better. I mean, it’s better late than never, right? I absolutely loved that because her mom wasn’t a cold, heartless person after all.

But first of all, can we mention how AMAZING Lucy, Maddie, and Delia did in speaking about their app. I loved how they explained how it came about in how there’s hardly any women you see in tech and how they wanted to give an outlet to young girls to foster that love for tech by learning coding and all those things through different levels that increase. I think that’s such a great idea because it allows girls to explore tech and see if they truly want to pursue it as a career and there truly is something empowering about knowing about other women in tech who changed the game. When you know that there were other people before you who did something like that, it makes you feel like that dream is more tangible. I loved the moment when Maddie was like to “Empower.” Such a good play on the app name ❤️

Obviously, the girls didn’t win the Valley Start Program, but Eric and his teammate did for their app about food allergens at restaurants, but I think the girls won so much more. They all talked about how they didn’t know what the future held for them, but they all knew they gained a family with the people they met. For Lucy, she was always so independent—-selfish as I talked about her earlier—-but she truly did learn to put herself aside and do what’s best for her team and I think that’s such a good quality to have and that it will help her in the workplace. I also liked how Maddie learned to be more open and trusting with people her age and how Delia learned to be more outspoken and confident. Honestly, I felt like a proud mama bear when Nishi offered Delia an internship for her program because Delia did deserve something that great. It would help alleviate college funds for her parents and it could lead to a full time job, which was so good for her. I also liked how Maddie kind of figured things out in how she was going to go to NYU to be closer to her brother. Lucy was going to travel with her mom to Europe to mend their relationship and then figure things out. As for Girl Empowered, Nishi was going to invest in it because she wanted to give the girls a chance because she saw something in them all those weeks ago when they came to her asking to break up.

I liked how everything ended on a happy note for them all, but also very up in the air about what they would do or how things would go. Since I’m a sucker for romance, kind of wondering where Eric and Delia might go or if they will DTR their relationship. Wondering what ever happened to Gavin Cox and if he will go somewhere else for tech now that Pulse is under investigation? Wonder what ever happened to Ryan Thompson and if his app would get pulled off the market. Gosh I hope so. I hope he gets put down from his company and that he goes to work at a fast food place where he can work with his can—-uncooked nuggets! Maybe Sadie and Danny will date in the future because I mean, how cute will that be? 😉 I’m also wondering if the girls will ever reunite or have a reunion in the future. I think they would because they gained so much from each other and they’re now an unbreakable team. I think they’re going to take time away to figure things out and fix things and when the time’s right, I think they’ll come back stronger together and create more apps that will change the world. It would be so cool if they started an entire company based on Empowered and it could start this whole female movement. We love female empowered movements!

But we don’t know about their futures. I like to hope for the best of them though.

Something else I enjoyed about this book was how each chapter started with tech lingo. It was such a fun, cute way to begin the chapters because it related to what was going on and it was also interesting to learn some of the terms.

Anyway, if you read this book, what were your thoughts? Favorite or least favorite part? Who was your favorite screen queen? Are you into technology and coding? Favorite app? Let me know below int eh comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you’re having a beautiful and bright day whenever and wherever you’re reading this.

And as always, with love,

Rating

3.86 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: The girls all have different personalities that you either love or completely dislike at first, but you have to understand that the characters are like that because of how they grew up. Over time, you truly learn to love them as they are and they do learn to become better people from each other, which is such a nice sentiment—–people change people.

Plot: Such a fun, fresh idea for a story that I feel like more girls need to read if they’re into technology, coding, or that kind of world. Even if you’re not interested in those kinds of things, it truly does bring more awareness and empowerment knowing that there are strong women out there doing what humans can do.

Writing: Love the chapter starters and easy to follow along.

Romance: Not a lot of romance, only one, but it’s a cute one.