The Au Pairs (The Au Pairs #1) by Melissa de la Cruz (Review)

Finally another book off the To-Be-Read Shelf!!  VERY slowly making process on that one...

Anyone, this time around I read Melissa de la Cruz's, if I'm not mistaken, Debut book The Au Pairs.  I picked this one up at a Goodwill about a year ago, because it seemed like a fun beach read! :)

From Goodreads:

Three girls with three agendas and the ultimate destination: the Hamptons.

Summer in the city? Way overrated. Everybody who's anybody in New York City summers in the Hamptons. Mara, Eliza, and Jacqui all want a piece of the action, all for different reasons.
So the girls answer a classified ad to become au pairs. How bad can it be, watching a couple of kids on the beach all day? They've got the swank address, the sweet ride, and an all-access pass to the hottest social scene on the East Coast. It's shaping up to be the summer of their lives.

My Thoughts:

I'm just going to say it right away...this book was a tad annoying.  Out of the three main characters, only one was tolerable, and even that ONE at times I wanted to smack!

Mara, the one I actually could tolerate, was the only down-to-earth and somewhat relate able character out of this entire book!  While, not used to the rich snootiness that is the Hamptons, the reader can tell that for a bit she was starting to get used to the lifestyle.  Overall, she was very nice, a bit of a push over though.  The other two girls would leave Mara all alone to watch these five kids, while they're off doing God knows what!

Eliza, while this character actually somewhat grew into a somewhat tolerable person at the end of the book, she just bothered me so much!  Her family used to rich like the people in the Hamptons, in fact they even owned a summer house there, that her father had to sell when some serious legal problems took all of their money away.  Eliza, still stuck in her rich ways, can't accept the fact that this world is not hers anymore.  She has a serious shopping problem!  She is rude to people, and just overall can't get over herself!

Jacqui...okay, I don't even know where to begin with this one!  She was probably my absolute least favorite out of the three girls.  I don't actually understand what her deal is either.  She would flirt with these very old guys to get things out of them, whether it be a party invitation everyone is dying to get, or a free dinner.  She is so naive it was almost ridiculous!

Overall rating for this one...

This book could have been a great summer read, if it these characters would have been a little different. In the end, they did each have their big epiphany that the reader expects, but while it happened, I couldn't help wondering, "Did they really learn their lessons?"  Mara was a pretty good character, but the other two...I don't know...

If you like the Gossip Girl series, then I think you'll enjoy this one.  This book is filled with drama, the rich life style that most people fantasize about.  While I do love money of course, I could never see myself living in a world where people think they are better than others just because they have a credit card their parents gave them...

If you're going to read this one, I will say read it in the summer!  That way you get the whole summer experience!

The Romance Bookie :)