The Fifteenth Minute - Book Review

By Sarina Bowen

Synopsis

Freshman Lianne Challice is known to millions of fans as Princess Vindi. But sometimes a silver screen sorceress just wants to hang up her wand, tell her manager to shove it, and become a normal college student. Too bad that’s harder than it looks.

She’s never lived a normal life. She hasn’t been to school since kindergarten. And getting close to anyone is just too risky — the last boy she kissed sold the story to a British tabloid.

But she can’t resist trying to get close to Daniel “DJ” Trevi, the hot, broody guy who spins tunes for hockey games in the arena. Something’s haunting his dark eyes, and she needs to know more.

DJ’s genius is for expressing the mood of the crowd with a ten second song snippet. With just a click and a fade, he can spread hope, pathos or elation among six thousand screaming fans.

Too bad his college career is about to experience the same quick fade-out as one of his songs. He can’t get close to Lianne, and he can’t tell her why. And the fact that she seems to like him at all? Incredible.

Review

Lianne is a freshman heading into her second semester at school and after keeping mostly to herself during the first semester, she wants to get out there a little more and have a normal college experience. But that’s hard to do when the actress is openly mocked by male and female students for the role that made her famous. DJ is a sophomore whose college years may be over sooner than he ever expected after he’s placed on social probation for a crime he didn’t commit. With the school not in a position to handle the investigation properly, yet all but considering him guilty, he’s spent the past several months waiting for the hammer to drop. This has left him very depressed and withdrawn, afraid that his family and friends also question his innocence.

DJ is the primary character in this book, with most of the story revolving around what he’s been accused of and waiting for the case to be resolved. He’s a young man who is hurt, confused and angry, who has been through the wringer and just wants it to be over with already. Lianne has some issues, but they’re pretty minor in comparison and while they were seemingly resolved by the end of the story, they weren’t very deep or delved in to. It’s because of that I found that she’s a little forgettable. But she’s very nice and it was cute to read about her crush on DJ.

THE FIFTEENTH MINUTE is another good addition to The Ivy Years series and we once again see a very sensitive issue addressed. We got a little insight into DJ’s older brother Leo, so I’m wondering if he’ll get the next book, assuming there will be a book # 6 of course.