Review: Amplified

Amplified
Tara Kelly
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Release Date: October 25, 2011
Pages: 304

When privileged 17-year-old Jasmine gets kicked out of her house, she takes what is left of her savings and flees to Santa Cruz to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. Jasmine finds the ideal room in an oceanfront house, but she needs to convince the three guys living there that she's the perfect roommate and lead guitarist for their band, C-Side. Too bad she has major stage fright and the cute bassist doesn't think a spoiled girl from over the hill can hack it. . . 

In this fresh new novel by critically acclaimed author Tara Kelly, Jasmine finds out what happens when her life gets Amplified

I was a huge fan of Tara's first book, Harmonic Feedback. From the description and the cover I knew that Amplified would be just as amazing. And I was right. Amplified was such an amazing, unique novel with a fun and spunky attitude. 

One thing that I loved about this book were the characters. I loved all of the band members: Veta, Sean, Felix. Even Bryn was a unique character, though he got on my nerves sometimes. All of them were very colorful.

Even though Jasmine was very spoiled in the past, she didn't seem like it. Her dad (whom I did not like) had taught her to do everything for herself and never ask for help. I never thought of her as a brat. Although, there were times when I wished she would stop complaining about things and do something. But eventually she did. 

I'm a huge fan of books with an emphasis on music. And this was one of them. I think that Amplified brings something new to the YA table. I haven't ever read a book like this, or at least not one that was done this well. I was a little worried about the actual music scenes, that I wouldn't be able to picture it well. But I was wrong. All of the performances were described wonderfully.

I keep going back and forth about the ending. On some level I wish it was wrapped up more nicely, but I think it ended well. It left just enough loose ends for me to draw my own conclusions.

Amplified was a fantastic and creative contemporary. It just made me even more of a fan of Tara Kelly, and I can't wait to read more by here.