articles

Hello Jenny Reviews

Book reviews for young adults

By One, Two, Three August 19, 2016

Title: One, Two, Three
Author: Elodie Nowodazkij
Format: eBook ARC
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Self Published
Publication Date: June 26 2014
One, Two, Three is marketed as being a cross between Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles and the movie Save the Last Dance. Now, not many people know this about me but Save the Last Dance is my FAVORITE movie of all time. So as soon as I was approved for this book I turned to my fiance and told him "I am going to critique the life out of this book because its being marketed as similar to Save the Last Dance." He just smiled and shook his head but I was completely serious. You can't market something as "like" my favorite movie without being analyzed. So.... What did I think?

I loved the book itself. It was an amazing story of a girl who only wanted to become a ballerina. Nothing else. She had no other real goals for herself until a car accident took her father and her ability to dance away. But even after sustaining another injury Natalya is still able to push her life forward and keep a somewhat positive attitude.

Natalya is a strong girl. Her father is gone. Her mother is a raging alcoholic who says the worst things and she is starting school in a new area. Luckily she has her best friend from when she used to visit her babushka, Becca, so things aren't as hard as they could be.

With being friends with Becca comes another friendship. Tonio is an unexpected and, at first, an unwelcome surprise. But Nata warms up to him until things take a turn for the worst. She finds out that maybe their "relationship" might just be a bet between friends.

There are so many shocks and emotional parts in this book. The situation with Tonio and the bet for the kiss. The Yuri thing... OMG that was insane. I never expected that and it's nice to be surprised while you are reading. 

I am glad that Nata finally decided to let Tonio in. With how her parents were and all the bad things that happened to her she was unsure whether she should let anyone into her life. But I think Tonia was a good mix for her. He helped her more than she even knew. And the same can be said for how much she helped him. They were both very mature for their ages.

Nata was very stupid when she ran away from the truth about Yuri and danced to the point where she wrecked her knee even more. She should have thought more clearly. She had a chance to maybe dance again but after this huge mistake she might never dance again. And then directly after hurting herself again she started to turn into her mother. But luckily she turned that around.

I really loved the Russian aspects of the books. The phrases and words thrown in there were great but then the author went and explained what they meant which made it even better because I didn't have to search online for their meanings. There was a lot of culture intertwined in the book that gave it some of its life.

The ending was kind of vague. She was starting to mend things with her mother but it just ends there. I want to know what happened with Tonio and his soccer scholarship. I REALLY want to know what happens with Yuri and Nata. 

As for whether or not the book lived up to its movie comparison, I think it was pretty good. There definitely were some similar aspects between the book and Save the Last Dance. It was also pretty true to the comparison to Perfect Chemistry mainly in the fact that there were Hispanic bad boys in the book. 

Overall, I gave the book 4/5 Kitties.