CLP Blog Tour: The Green Ticket

I cannot tell you guys how excited I was to read The Green Ticket. This is the second novel from the fabulous Samantha March - author and book blogger extraordinaire (she runs the popular site Chick Lit Plus). I read and loved her debut novel, Destined to Fail late last year (check out my review here if you missed it). So, did her second novel live up to the expectations I had? Oh yeah. I loved it.

Here's the synopsis:

College junior Alex Abrams scores her dream job at the ripe age of twenty – manager to a successful salon and spa. Thrilled to finally have a real adult job, Alex enthusiastically jumps into the world of schedules, conference calls, and getting a massage when interviewing prospective employees. What she doesn’t expect are the very grown-up issues that comes with a demanding boss. Kevin Dohlman quickly becomes Alex’s worse nightmare – covering up his affairs, dealing with his enormous ego, and trying to protect her female staff from him becomes a full-time job in its own right. Alex has also befriended Kevin’s wife and co-owner, Dani, and is trying to keep Kevin’s secrets hidden from her. The situation only worsens when Kevin starts paying Alex off to make sure she keeps her insider knowledge to herself. 

While struggling to keep her wits and stay happy with her new grown-up job, Alex is juggling college courses, a new love interest, and keeping up with her close group of girlfriends. When her roommate and best friend Lila gets offered an opportunity to move to Los Angeles and sign with an agent, Alex realizes her life truly is changing, and everyone around her – including herself – is growing up. Knowing she is faced with some hard decisions ahead, Alex struggles with keeping her job at Blissful. But does she really want to throw away what she dreamed of as a career – or will the secret-keeping for Kevin become too much to handle? The Green Ticket is a story about morals versus money, and how one young woman navigates the shaky line between the two.

One of the things I remember liking about Destined to Fail was that I could really relate to the characters. The girls were college students and it hasn't been that long since I graduated from university. The Green Ticket was just the same way. I could completely relate to Alex's lifestyle at school. She and her girlfriends all lived in the same dorm at their college. That brought back fond memories of my dorm in first year and then living with some of my closest friends for the next three years. It was so much easier to hang out when they were just upstairs or down the hall - instead of 3 hours or 6 hours or...apparently Google can't calculate the directions from where I live now to where one of my old roomies is in Nunavut. OK, a ridiculously long way away. Point is, I miss the days when my friends lived close enough that I didn't have to put on real shoes to see them (something Alex mentions in the book). I really liked that aspect and I think March does a great job of writing some really real friendships - so much so that I wish I could be one Alex's friends, too!

What I also liked about this book was that the romance wasn't the central storyline. This is a minor spoiler as you'll notice that it's not even mentioned in the synopsis. Now, don't get me wrong, I love that there was a (wonderfully written) romance with Alex and Henry but I'm glad it wasn't the main focus. I do think that they are an adorable couple and am glad they found each other.

The only negative I found with this book was that there was a chunk of time that was just skipped over - from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve. March caught me up and let me know what happened during that period of time but I just found it odd that over a month was just bounced over.

I couldn't believe the...well...crap, that Alex had to put up with at Blissful. I don't know what I would have done if I had been in her position. Though, I doubt I'd ever be in her position because there's no way that I would have had enough confidence in myself to run a spa when I was in my third year of university. I really admired Alex and I thought she was a fabulous main character.

I'm sure I could continue gushing about The Green Ticket, but I won't. Instead, I'll urge you all to buy a copy of it so you can see for yourselves how fabulous it is. I'm so glad I was able to take place in this tour and I'm happy to let you know that I'll have a guest post from author Samantha March herself, as well as an interview coming up later in the week. While you're waiting, hop on over to the main tour page and check out some of the other reviews. Maybe they'll help convince you to buy this book!

Happy reading :)