Beneath The Glitter - Elle & Blair Fowler

Anyone who knows me at all in real life knows that I'm not the most fashionable person around. I never was (awkward high school 'emo' years anyone?). I can't be bothered to choose clothes and coordinate outfits! Makeup is no better - when I'm not too lazy to just leave the house bare-faced, I stick to the same two looks. It's not that I don't want to look good... I'm just the laziest person ever. That being said, I LOVE fashion and makeup. I buy magazines like Nylon on a regular basis, read fashion blogs, and subscribe to some fashion and makeup Youtubers. So when I saw that Elle & Blair Fowler wrote their own book based in part on their life, I had to read it.

If you don't know who they are, head on over here to Blair's Youtube channel and watch some videos.

Watched some videos? Welcome back! Looking at the premise of this book, it's very easy to draw similarities between Elle and Blair's real-life Youtube career and that of their characters, Sophia and Ava. In both cases, two sisters move from the southeastern US to Los Angeles to pursue their budding career as fashion and makeup bloggers. They're rich and fabulous: they have lots of sponsors and deals lined up, they date the rich and famous, are on the guestlist of some of the hottest parties around, and charm the pants off of pretty much everyone they run into. The sisters are total opposites, but complement each other. How do we know this? One sister is blonde, the other brunette. One has a pet dog, the other has a cat. One sister looks before she leaps, and the other dives in. If one sister does something in this book, you can pretty much expect her sister to do the polar opposite. Y'know. Because they're different.

It sounds like I'm ragging on this book. I'm not. It's pretty much what I was expecting; you're not going to get Moby Dick out of Elle and Blair Fowler. The book delivers what it promises: a fun romp full of fashion, gossip, and fame. The sisters in Beneath the Glitter get into their fair share of drama and trouble, and it was fun to read about their mishaps and adventures. The writing isn't spectacular, but it's better quality than some of the other books out there right now. At the end of every chapter we're given a list of "LonDOs" and "LonDON'Ts", which essentially recap what happened in the last chapter for anyone who missed something. Which you shouldn't have, because the book is extremely straightforward.

The characters were pretty straightforward. The sisters bickered like real sisters, and their relationship was the most explored. I could relate to Sophia and her issues with her younger sister, as I'm an older sister myself and have gone through similar experiences. Some of the secondary characters (MM and Sven) seemed interesting, but only made arbitrary appearances that didn't really help to push the plot forward or offer much development.

No review of this book would be complete without drawing similarities between Beneath the Glitter and Lauren Conrad's books. Both series involve the main characters moving to L.A. to pursue a media-related career, similar to that of the author. Of course, the main characters discover that not everybody in L.A. is what they seem, and that backstabbing and secrets are as common as Old Navy stores in a mall.

By the end of the book, we finally start to get some action. It's a much-needed change, as the rest of the book revolves around family drama, parties, and the girls' day-to-day lives (working at the animal shelter! going on dates! shaving their legs!). Unfortunately, it comes a little too late in the game, and just as things start to get interesting we're given a cliffhanger and told to wait for the next book (Summer 2013). I was hoping that this would be a one-off novel, as once I start a series I HAVE to finish it. But it looks like there's more Elle and Blair in my future.

My biggest complaint about this book is that the Youtube career- the WHOLE REASON for the sisters moving to L.A.- is only briefly touched on. Most of the Youtubers I watch on a regular basis work very hard. Smosh and Pewdiepie post videos pretty much every day of the week. The girls at WonderlandWardrobe and CutiePieMarzia, both fashion and beauty bloggers, post regularly. Ava and Sophia London, on the other hand, never actually work on a video or even visit the website. I know that it would be boring to read about people browsing and uploading to Youtube for a whole book and that the girls were working on expanding their brand and creating a line, but if you advertise a book as being about two Youtubing sisters, I want some Youtube, dammit! The book was certainly enjoyable for the fluff that it is, but there was nothing about it to make it stand out from the pack. Worth reading if you're a fan of the girls or want a beach read.

SCORE: 6.9/10
IF YOU LIKE: L.A. Candy (Lauren Conrad), Burn for Burn (Jenny Han)