Book Review: Bad Girls by Rebecca Chance

Bad Girls by Rebecca Chance is a novel about four people who one way or another wind up at a super posh rehab clinic in LA. There’s Amber Peters, a model who lives her life in a haze of Vicodin and vodka. Joe Jeffreys, a megawatt superstar who goes to clean up his image under the pretense of a sex addiction. Skye Ellwood, an exotic dancer barely making enough to pay her rent and coke habit, until she gets offered something incredible, that is. And there is Petal Gold, daughter of a rock god who does a little too much coke, and has major, major, daddy issues.

I bought this book on a whim. Yes, I decided to take a chance on Rebecca Chance. I liked this novel, but I wasn’t overly thrilled by it. It did entertain me, and I was hooked into the story, but it didn’t wow me. I didn’t love the novel. But then again I suppose you’re not going to love every single book you read, or well, no, I don’t think that’s possible. The story wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t exceptionally great.

The first thing that bothered me a bit about this book was the cover. Maybe you disagree but I didn’t think the cover was that wonderful. I’m not really sure how to say it but I thought it was kind of toned down. The colours are sort of neutral and not exactly brilliant. I don’t hate the cover. It is okay, just not overly great, sort of how I felt with the story. That being said, I did buy the book, so something about the cover must have caught my eye.

The other thing that bothered me a little about the book, is I wished there could have been a little more interaction between the four main characters. They do all end up at the rehab clinic together, and everyone does interact with everyone else, but for some of them it’s not as much as it could be. Or even though they are interacting, it’s almost like they’re separate stories and they just pass each other by. I read a book (Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison) once that did a similar thing to this novel, where there are four different characters that all have their own thing but end up meeting together in a group. In that novel the four women’s stories ended up merging into each other. They still had separate stories, but all the women stayed in each other’s lives and they became close, whereas that didn’t quite happen in this one. That’s not a bad thing. I just think I was expecting a little more interaction once the four main characters in Bad Girls met up, but then again, it might not have worked as well if Chance did do that with her characters.

That being said, this story does have good things in it. Each of the character’s stories are quite intriguing. There is definitely a lot of drama and romance (more like sex, which I have to say, is quite creative) that happens in the book and quite a bit of nail biting accidental backstabbing. I want to be clear that I was interested in each of the stories, I just didn’t care that much for the layout. Chance also does a good job of painting who each character is so that the reader has a clear picture of who they are in their mind.

If you’re thinking about reading this novel, I would recommend it to those who like some drama, some romance, and perhaps a little revenge and craziness.