Review: Life Just Got Real by Sadie Robertson

Life Just Got Real by Sadie Robertson and Cindy Coloma
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Howard Books
Date: June 7, 2016

A.J. Smith loves her home and her family. Since her father passed away, her life has been solely and wholly about keeping everyone together. She’s not the kind of teenage  girl that most would expect. Mudding, hunting, backwoods fun – these are the things that A.J. cares about. Fashion, bling, reputation, social media – none of these interest her in the least.

Enter Kate Kelly. Kate lives hundreds of miles away from A.J. and everything she does is very carefully calculated for appearance sake. She’s pretty much the leader in her elite private school and everyone knows it. Each outfit, each public appearance – everything is very specific and carefully crafted.

So when A.J. moves into Kate Kelly’s area and starts going to her school, you can imagine that tensions run high. The two girls are total opposites at virtually everything and it doesn’t take long for them to find themselves on opposing sides at…life.

Now this happens in a lot of schools so it’s not really out of the ordinary to imagine. But what stirs things up to a complete new level is the fact that Kate’s father has just secured a high profile television network to do a reality show about his family. Kate, specifically. She’s not so much a fan of this idea but she will grudgingly go along with things. That is until the producers show up to scout the school and they see reality television gold with A.J. and her polar opposite lifestyle. Now A.J. has to do the show or they won’t do it at all. Needless to say those tension mentioned earlier? They come to a boiling point pretty quickly.

I’ll be honest. I picked this book up because my girls LOVE Sadie Robertson. She’s a good role model and someone in the public eye who shares their values. I started reading because of that. I kept reading because it was good. In fact at one point, I was  thinking “Wow, they got reality television spot on” and then I stopped and laughed. Sadie Robertson’s family pretty much IS reality television at this point.  I had completely forgotten who wrote the book as I was reading – I was so lost in the story. Nice job! Robertson definitely  knows that world and you can also see where she gets both A.J. and Kate.

I really enjoyed this book and I happily passed it off to both of my daughters. I hope Sadie and Cindy have more books planned in this series because it’s just that good.

If you have a teen girl in your home, GET THIS BOOK. Don’t hesitate. You don’t want to miss it.

Rating:

Review copy provided by the publisher