3 Willows: A Book Review

Hi, I'm back yet again. I know it seem's I've been reading really fast and you're probably wondering "Does she do anything besides reading?"
Well the answer is, yes, yes I do other things. I just love reading so much and I'm pretty fast at it. If I really love a book, I usually take longer, and if I only kinda like a book I go through it a bit faster. If I don't like a book but I want to finish it I do it really really fast. If the book is to unbearable for words, I don't even finish it.
This book falls into the kinda like category.

Title: 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows.
Author: Ann Brashares
Genre: Teen Drama
Reading Level: 13 and up

Summary:
seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.

roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .

leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.
It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them.

My Review: Ah, teen drama, is there anything so...predictable. Usually I don't mind predictability in any book outside a mystery. But it's just sad when you know what will happen with a girls plot the moment you start reading it. These girls are heading into high schol and their BFF relationship is starting to unravel,no matter how many junky jeans or scarf's they find at thrift shops. I will review this book by going through each individual girls plot line. First up is the sad story.

Polly: Polly is a girl with an overbite, curves, and black hair. She want's to change herself into a model after hearing from her old uncle Hoppy that her grandmother was a model. So she starts dieting and researching models and worrying about her appearance. Her sub-plot is her strained relationship with her mother who is never home and how she wishes to get her mothers attention. While Polly's story of finding self worth was interesting, it had a very draggy depressing feel to it's writing. I felt sad the whole time, she just kept coming upon too many obstacles and I just wanted the author to let something good happen to her. At least she got a semi-happy ending but it was a little too ambigious for my liking.

Jo: Like little women Jo, only this girl doesn't have Jo's sense. In the beginning of the story Jo is still trying to get over the tragic death of her older brother Finn. On top of that her parents are getting a divorce. She's feeling a little crazy over it all even though she doesn't let it show. The first half of her plot was in my opinion where the book was so predictable. She meets this boy on a bus for like two seconds and then lets him kiss her...What the halibut?! She doesn't know his name! He coulda been an ax murderer on the run! like I said she was feeling a little crazy, and later regretted this move until she finds the boys working where she's working for the summer. Thus starts their doomed "Guys a player" relationship. Now her sub-plotline with her fixing her relationship with her dad and her healing process over her brothers death was very nice and I did enjoy the ending to her story a lot.

Ama: This was my favorite plotline. I thought Ama was hilarious, as she tried desperately to get through her nature adventure hike without dying. Her imaginative thoughts about all the trouble she could get into was really funny I found myself chuckling and wishing the book was just about her. Ama does have some difficulty outside of nature though, one being her annoying boy obsessed tent mate, and another being a boy named Noah who she likes but is mean to because she's uncertain of if he likes her tent mate or not. But like in all books not everything is what it seems. Ama's "appreciate nature" storyline was a refreshing breath air after Polly's depressing fest and Jo's "I wanna be popular" shinanigans.

The book switches from each story sporadically throughout the book, and ties it all up together in the end. I like the symbolic willows tree's in this story. It was sweeter than a pair of magical pants. Speakin' of the pants, the "sisterhood" as it's called was referred in this book as thought the girls in it were ancient goddesses only on earth to grace mere mortals with their presence. It kinda seemed far fetch that they would be so popular and imatated in their old school. They were also referred to as like movie star, the most beautiful girls, and it just felt to hammy and promotional for the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pant's" series. When Authors write other books outside of the one's they're famous for, I like to see them completely break away. Not give their old characters a one liner cameo. That's good in a series but I thought 3 Willows was supposed to be a stand alone book. The writing sometimes confused me, but other than that it was okay.
Content: Suggestive innuendo, language, and thematic elements.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Recommend: No, there are other books with similar plot lines that were better.