Emma Hearts L.A. by Keris Stainton

About the book

Emma Hearts L.A. is a follow up book to Jessie Hearts NYC and is by Keris Stainton. The book was published by Orchard on 7^th June and the book is 256 pages long.

Plot

Emma's not sure that LA's for her, but when she accompanies her sister Jane to an audition, a chance meeting with a teen TV star starts to change her new sunshine lifestyle for the better... But what about Oscar, so far her only friend in LA, who's turning out NOT to be the idiot she thought he was?

Soon Emma begins to find herself torn between two boys and reconsidering her entire future.

Maybe LA's not that bad after all.

What I thought

I’ve loved Keris Stainton’s previous two books so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one. Della says: OMG was insanely real and emotional while Jessie Hearts NYC was funny and romantic.

This book follows Emma, best friend of Jessie from the previous book, in her adventure of moving to L.A. Her mum has just got a new job at UCLA and is uprooting the family and moving across the pond. While little sister Bex is thrilled about the move, Emma is far from enthusiastic. She doesn’t want to leave the life she knows and loves which was completely understandable. I liked Emma to begin with and the fact that she wasn’t afraid to give her opinions on the move. As a character, Emma is funny and witty and a bit sassy at the same time. Her personality and attitude were great and this made her easily likable.

When Emma is told about moving to L.A., she remembers her old friend Oscar who also lives there. His dad is helping Emma’s mum with the move and the new job and this means Emma and Oscar will probably cross paths. Oscar was a fabulous character, full of personality and interesting little quirks. He’s a massive geek at heart and comes out with all kinds of film references which I adored about him. Throughout the book, Stainton lets her readers know about Oscar’s past and present, the same with Emma, and this really gave me a good feel about what the pair used to be like and why they are like they are in the present. Oscar was extremely caring and nice towards both Emma and Bex and I loved how he was like this even though he hadn’t seen them for years.

Where Jessie Hearts NYC was full of TV show references, this book has all kinds of little bits about films and how the television world works. Experiencing L.A. like this made me think about my friend Laura, who is spending the summer out there herself. It made me wonder if she’s experiencing L.A. like this at all or going to any of the places that Stainton mentions. Unlike in ‘Jessie’ though, the references are less often and a lot more subtle which was something I liked. Some places are mentioned in passing instead of being a big subject in the plot. 

Although some may not like this fact, Stainton’s books are quite short. At less than 300 pages long, this book is a quick and light-hearted read. It doesn’t take an awful lot of concentration and for a quick reader like me; I got through it in only one sitting. While the characters and setting were great, the plot just didn’t do it for me. While the book being short is a good thing at times, I felt as though parts of the plot could have been better and more detailed. For example, in a book like this there is always a love triangle but here, it was quickly passed by and not given enough time to develop at all. The character of Alex could have been a great addition to the book but I felt like he didn’t even really need to be there in order for certain things to happen. Also, some other details felt missing to me. As children, both Emma and Bex seemed to have been in L.A. for weeks but neither had been enrolled in school and it wasn’t even mentioned until the very end. I know this isn’t supposed to be the most realistic book but I think things like this could have been addressed easily without messing with the rest of the plot.

Emma Hearts L.A. was a mixed bag for me and although I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it as much as Stainton’s other books.