Honey
by Isabel Banta
Read if you liked The Woman in Me.

Thank you to Celadon Books for the gifted digital copy!

Amber wants to be famous - and she's willing to put in the work to get there. She gets the chance to join a 90s girl band group and ends up among the stars. As her career evolves and continues, her life changes and she learns what it means to be in the public eye.

This book is fictional Britney Spears and it stuck with me more than her memoir (sorry). It had a nostalgic feel, sine it was set in the 90s and this is exactly when I was growing up and listening to Britney and Christina and N*Sync and Backstreet Boys and so on. It was part celebrity drama part musical inspiration, which I'm sure is exactly the balance of a career musician. The fame and struggle themes reminded me of Evelyn Hugo in the idea that everyone was so interested in the private details of their lives. The first part was a little slower but then it picked up in the second half. This book was fun but touched on trickier topics like taking advantage of young girls and them not having a say in their image.

Honey follows rising pop star Amber Young as she tries to confirm to the standards of her time for young, female artists. Full of boys, music, drama and real life issues.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I feel very nostalgic reading this as I was a 90s baby and grew up during the rise of a lot of popular female pop-stars and boybands. Amber felt really relatable as a woman to her trying to fit in but also trying to be herself and dealing with the issue of being exploited just because of who she is.

I wish we got an “epilogue” chapter just to wrap things up better than the ending that we got. But otherwise, the book was easy to read, fun and touched on some issues that were important. Recommend reading, especially if you’re a 80s/90s baby.

Thank you NetGalley, Celadon Books and Isabel Banta for a chance to read and review this eARC.

This book was just so easy to get lost in. I completely got lost in the story and I just loved getting to see these new characters come together. I just absolutely love this story and I just didn’t want to put it down. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.

As a person who grew up in the 90s and early 00s, I really enjoyed all the nostalgia for that time period.
I really liked how even though these were all fictional characters they felt real.
This was not only a glimpse into a young pop star but also just a young girl growing up in a sexualized and misogynistic world surrounded by people who may or may not have had her best interest at heart.

I really enjoyed it. I liked the added interviews and songs a lot too. They added to the story and also showed how they were all portrayed in the media.
I wouldn’t really say any of the characters were super likable but they were interesting. The whole dynamic between Amber and Gwen was great. I loved their journey throughout the years. Axel was my favorite character. He was basically the only person that was just himself and treated Amber like more than an object. I liked him from the very first time we met him. I liked Amber even with all her flaws too. All the emotions of being a young pop star and a young person in general felt real. Being pit against other girls and falling for stupid boys. Then, rising above and finding yourself along the way.

I would have liked this novel when I was younger. It was similar to reading a gossip magazine, which I no longer enjoy.

I started reading this, but I couldn't get into it. I think the market is oversaturated with novels inspired by late 1990s/early 2000s pop stardom right now. I totally understand why, but I've already read some novels in that vein and I enjoyed them and preferred them to this.

Amber has always wanted to sing. And she is good at it. She was on Star Search, losing to a guy named Wes that would keep showing up in her life for years to come. She ends up joining a girl group and her career begins to take off. During this time she starts to explore her sexuality and learn what it means to be in the spotlight all the time.

I really enjoyed this book…it took place during the late 90s and early 2000s and Amber was about the same age I was during that time. It was a nice walk back in time for me!

If you like the 90's, you will enjoy this book. There are many references to the time that makes you feel nostalgic. It is a story of growing up and making your own way. I look forward to reading more by Isabel Banta.

Although this book wasn’t for me, I believe older teen girls will like it. As an adult woman, the content was just not relatable.

I knew within the first few pages of this book that Honey would be a book that will keep me hooked and leave me thinking and wanting more.

Honey covers so many different topics... from tying in real life historical events, to discussing objectification in the media, how society views women (especially those who are famous), and the seedy men that run many recording companies.
I love pop culture and reading about the behind the scenes. It's hard to hear some of the stories about artists getting screwed over by those they thought were close to them. I think that is what really drew me in to wanting to read this novel. Getting to delve deeper into that world that many actually live in on a daily basis. I believe that is novel brings that industry to light even more and can get people thinking a bit more about how they act towards celebrities - they are human too.
I love books that have the sense that these could be real artists making music today. The first book I ever read that was like that was Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and I think Honey sits right up there with it as a book that provides such vivid characters. Hearing Amber and Gwen's struggles as they grew up in the limelight was so intriguing. I felt my heart breaking when theirs did, I felt angry when they were betrayed, and I felt happy when they finally were succeeding in their careers! Banta did such an incredible job opening up this world where a reader can just get so invested in a characters life.

I cannot recommend this book enough!!! Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to write this wonderful book a review!

Amber Young is an up and coming pop star. The story follows her as her career starts and as she starts to become more famous.
I was really excited to read this one since I grew up in the 90s. I was hoping for more nostalgic vibes and never felt them. I had a hard time getting through it and connecting with the characters. Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the E-ARC of Honey. This was a great book. Very nostalgic and immersive into the main character's experience.

This novel, set in the 1990s and early 2000s, is told from the perspective of Amber, who sets out as a teenager to become a pop star as we follow her highs and lows in the music industry, in her friendship with another female pop star Gwen, and in relationships. Interspersed throughout the conventional narrative are occasional faux news articles, song lyrics, etc.

Amber and Gwen are wholly fictional characters, as are their male counterparts in the book’s bot band ETA, but think of them as the fictional contemporaries of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, N Sync, Backstreet Boys, etc. In my opinion this fictional story is better than Britney’s memoir, but not as good as Jessica’s. It was an entertaining enough read, but not a stand-out.

3.5 stars

While I was really invested in the story from the description but what really let me down in this book was the writing style. I really liked the nostalgic elements of this story but i just found that it really didn’t work for me.

Thank you to Celadon & Netgalley for and advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I don't usually pick up my Netgalley books this quick but I had high hopes for this. It sounded like a YA Daisy Jones and the Six but it read like a really flat version of a Danielle Steele book. I couldn't get past 40 pages which is when usually know if the book's getting any better or not. DNF, sorry.

LOVE LOVE LOVE. This book was so good. It gave me Daisy Jones vibes. I loved watching Amber become who she is instead of who they wanted her to be, and felt awful for her when she would get caught up in who her friends were being forced to be. Def a recommendation for my book club.

A coming-of-age story revolving around young music pop star female phenoms as they grow up in the business and navigate their personal selves while being managed by the industry. Amber Young is given her dream opportunity of becoming a member of a girl band when she’s discovered during a town talent show. In LA she befriends two rising stars, Gwen and Wes and their lives intertwine as their careers rise and fall.
Despite some adult topics, some described, some alluded to this I think this would resonate with a mature Young Adult audience. Images of Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus popped into my head as I read of Amber’s experiences. The obstacles and the influences that these young stars had to navigate, their relationships, and which survived. I love the thread of friendship in this story and felt the ending was awesome. I wish some of the scenes had more depth and I think that’s what gave it more of a YA feel rather than the subject matter.

I enjoyed this one - a little underwhelming as a whole but I’m not sure what else I was expecting. I was entertained most of the time

I enjoyed this; as a 90s kid it was an exceptionally fun read. I do think some of the pacing was off, I'd have enjoyed a more in depth look at some of the behind the scenes story telling, and could have moved faster through some other parts. Over all this was a compelling story well told. Would recommend.

I was instantly intrigued when I read the synopsis for Honey and overall, it was enjoyable, but there were some aspects that could have been stronger. The writer tended to tell more than show. There were a few scenes in particular where I could have spent more time in the details really experiencing the behind-the-scenes moments with Amber but instead, I was just told exactly what Amber was experiencing.