Customer Reviews

Nothing But Drama (Good Girlz)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nothing But Drama by ReShonda Tate Billingley is a wonderful coming-of-age story. The book focuses on four teen-aged girls. Camille is a good girl who finds herself in a relationship with a bad boy. Jasmine is a larger-than-life girl who expects to be attacked, so her way is to attack first. Alexis is a rich girl, who appears to have it all, but is hiding a family secret. Angel finds herself in a situation she promised her mom she would never be in, so running away seems her only option. These girls could not be more different. However, the one common ground they have is they are all convinced their mothers are clueless.

The young women end up participating in a community service group sponsored by a local church, called the Good Girlz. The group is led by Miss Rachel, the pastor's wife, who has a less than perfect past of her own. Her focus is to show the young ladies that they have options, while providing spiritual guidance. Through a series of meetings, the girls bond reluctantly becoming friends. With Miss Rachel's guidance, the Good Girlz discover how to depend on others and to accept responsibility for their actions. They also discover that mothers just might know something.

Nothing But Drama is a wonderful read for any age group. I strongly recommend this book to teens, parents and mentors.

Angelia Menchan
APOOO BookClub

We couldn't wait to read this book because we loved the title. Our reading group loves books with drama and suspense. Instead, what we found were four girls who were members of a church group called Good Girlz. There was only one girl in the group that volunteered to be a member. The other three were sent there mandatorily. The story mainly focuses on two of the girls--Camille, a black girl, and Angel, a Mexican.

Camille's drama was that her boyfriend, Keith, was a liar and a cheat. But when her friends tried to tell her that he was no good, she didn't want to believe it because she thought she really loved him. This was a good storyline and we wished the whole book was based on this story because the drama in Camille's life was good and interesting.

Angel's drama was that she had a baby by a boy who denied it (typical). Her mother was disappointed. Angel didn't want to give her baby up for adoption, so she thought she would run away. This story was okay. It wasn't as exciting as Camille's story.

Jasmine was a tomboy and she was angry at the world for whatever reason. She didn't have any drama in her story other than the fact that she kept it real by bullying everybody in the group.

Alexis was just a prissy spoiled brat with an alcoholic mother. She had everything she wanted. She turned her nose down at anyone who wasn't on her level, but she didn't have much drama going on.

The best part of the story was when the Good Girlz went to a redneck town in Texas to try to find Angel and they ran into some good old boys. It had gotten suspenseful at times but it only remained suspenseful for about a page or two. We wanted to hear more about this part of the book but it ended as quickly as it began. The part about LaShay (Keith's other girlfriend) and Camille fighting at the jailhouse was dramatic. But why didn't Camille's mother say anything about the black eye that LaShay gave her? LaShay was so ghetto but she kept it real in the hood.

Sometimes it was hard to tell which girl was speaking because their voices sounded alike. We really couldn't tell if the story had a premise. We think it was supposed to be that Mother knows best. But in this case--NOT! We know we're supposed to honor thy mother and father, but what if your mother is an alcoholic like Alexis's mother; Or ghost like Jasmine's Mom; Or selfish like Angel's Mom was? Camille was the only one with the mother who seemed to know what was best and she had gotten the raw end of the deal by having a heart attack. Maybe the premise also could have been on making new friends and being true to them.

We were glad the book stayed focused on the teens and not on the adults. We would recommend it to other teens.

3 Snaps!!!
Teens'R'Us

Back with her signature style of using life's drama to teach lessons, Reshonda Tate Billingsley has created another great book titled NOTHING BUT DRAMA. This time around she is focusing on the younger generation with a new teen series which uses lessons from the Ten Commandments as its backdrop. This first novel uses the theme of honoring parents.

NOTHING BUT DRAMA focuses on four teenaged girls who meet when they become members of a community service group called Good Girlz. When they first meet, they seem to have nothing in common. Camille is at the meeting because she was court ordered after being arrested for hiding her boyfriend, who escaped from jail. Angel attends out of desperation, hoping to win the money being offered as a door prize. Alexis only joins to fulfill a community service requirement for another organization she belongs to, and Jasmine comes to the meetings because the leader, Rachel, insists. However, the girls become friends, creating a bond which helps each get through the drama that comes their way. All four girls soon learn that they can depend on each other, rather than try to fight their battles alone. The girls, especially Camille, also learn that honoring their parents can make life much easier for them.

Billingsley may be writing a teen series, but NOTHING BUT DRAMA is one that even adults can enjoy. Although the focus in this book appears to be more on Camille and Angel, all of the characters are well-rounded and developed so the reader becomes interested in their lives and the situations they face. Billingsley's novel is also well-paced and an easy read. She tackles issues of teenage sex, pregnancy, running away, and bullying without the story becoming too complicated or confusing. This book is good for entertaining purposes or for use in a book group for discussion. Either way, NOTHING BUT DRAMA lives up to its title and its purpose to teach a lesson.

Reviewed by Criss
for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Nothing But Drama doesnt dissapoint. Im a big fan of Reshonda's novels and I was hoping I wouldnt be dissapointed with her teen book. And neither me, nor my daughter, nor my neice were. We really enjoyed this book and held our own little book club discussion. It was a bonding moment and I felt great seeing them passionate about reading something. I like how the book wasnt too preachy and had the girls doing real things teens do, including the drama with their mamas. I especially liked the inspirational message. We need more books like this!

Rachel, the first lady of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, founded Good Girlz Club, and Camille, Angel, Jasmine and Alexis all have different reasons for becoming a part of this community service group.
Honor Thy Mother and Father is the theme of this first book in Billingsley's Christian teen series. Camille seemed to be the only one who had a real problem obeying the Fifth Commandment, while it appeared that Angel (hurting & confused), Jasmine (angry & defensive) and Alexis (misunderstood) just needed their parents to show them love. Camille was disrespectful toward her mother, causing this hard-working woman all kinds of stress, throughout most of the story, and it took a life-threatening situation for her to appreciate the one parent she had left.
Teen sex & pregnancy, the mistakes girls can make when it comes to so-called boyfriends, running away, knowing how to recognize true friendship, taking a good parent for granted - all of these issues were addressed in this interesting, entertaining read.
This one was definitely a page-turner, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough while reading Chapter 21! I plan to buy the other books in this series very soon.

The title to Nothing but Drama was perfect for this story...this boook was a page turner.I loved it, this book is an inspiring book for teen girls who are reading for fun, or need to get their life together. This book would be great for a book talk. I am looking forward to reading more books in the series!! I would cearly recomend this book for teen girls!!!
***** stars

You found a niche that was sorely lacking! What a wonderful way to use real today's life issues with the ten commandments to let Teens know they cannot live their life without Christ. Definitely a page turner. Cannot wait for Book 2!