The Casquette Girls

I liked the idea of the coven versus the vampires, the way the characters wrestle with having survived a natural disaster is really well handled, and you can feel the love for New Orleans flowing from this book, but in the end, it just didn't entirely work for me.

I was expecting more of a girl-group sort of book from the blurb, and this definitely isn't that. The love triangle is incredibly stupid (it's never really clear what Adele sees in either dude aside from how hot they are), most of the characters are pretty thinly drawn, the phonetically written accents verge on racist parody at points... Also, it really felt like too much of the book was build-up. Once things went nuts a lot happened but there were some pretty long periods of time where nothing really happened or previous points were repeated.

1) I just realized I've been thinking of this book as the “The Cassette Girls.” Why? I blame work.
2) I didn't especially like the ending of this but the plot is pretty thrilling and the pacing is very nicely laid out.
3) The storyline and history of the French Quarter and New Orleans was by far the best in execution. The author grew up in New Orleans and she weaved her knowledge and experience effortlessly throughout the book.
4) The characters were unique (as only New Orleans can be). However, the supernatural aspect isn't as fleshed out in this first book as it could have been. I did enjoy the main character. She was strong, independent and charismatic. I didn't love her so much around boys because she dismissed a lot of her judgements of them as soon as they were around.
5) The writing is very easy to follow and I loved the storytelling aspect that's woven throughout the entire book with the past narrative diary entries.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. Adele and her father have just returned to New Orleans. A hurricane they called The Storm of the Century has destroyed much of the area. Her home is still standing, but one wall of her father's studio has been destroyed. Adele offers to move into the attic so her father can take over her old room for his studio. While cleaning the attic, she comes across a diary from a relative written in the 1700's. Strange things start happening to Adele and her newfound friends. Could they be witches? Do vampires exist? Read it and find out!! This book was very good. I enjoyed reading the history of The Casquette Girls the most I think, but the whole book was great. I can't wait for more!