In "Honey," Isabel Banta weaves a coming-of-age story, searing in its intensity, against the vibrant tapestry of late-90s and early-2000s popular culture. Beginning with Amber Young, the meteoric singer, this novel takes readers scrolling along the highs and lows of fame to explore an illusion-bound identity, high-reaching ambition, and elusive safety in the search for authenticity within this otherwise переплєтенный industry.

It's 1997, and Amber gets to start a new life in Los Angeles as part of the girl group Cloud9. She takes up this chance for a new life and leaves her small town in hopes of reaching stardom. She enters into this cutthroat music business and tries to survive it, putting her in the orbits of other rising stars chasing their own dreams and fighting their personal demons: Gwen Morris and Wes Kingston.

With real dexterity, Banta shapes a little of the turbulent landscape of fame and dives deep into Amber's rich inner life: her trying to balance the pressures of celebrity in pursuit of love, success, and fulfillment. Amber brings readers such a new, multi-faceted perspective on these pop icons of the '90s and 2000s and redefines the stories of these superstars with vulnerabilities behind public personas.

By turns compared to Stephanie Danler's "Sweetbitter" and Jennette McCurdy's "I'm Glad My Mom Died", "Honey" promises to delight readers with its engaging narrative and naked candor. Reimagining stories of some of the most famous pop icons of that time, Banta does so in a more refreshing, multi-dimensional view than one would have otherwise thought out—the kind that challenges readers' preconceived notions and has them rethink celebrity and fame.

Honey 
4-4.25 ⭐ 

I wasn't sure this book was going to be for me, but I loved it. If you like Taylor Jenkins Reid I think you will like this book, it gives daisy Jones/ seven husbands vibes. In the sense that we watch our mc amber. Go from auditions and trying to make a name for herself, to making music and touring. You get her from being a little kid with a dream to early adulthood. 
Its 90s-2000s, which being a 90s baby I loved the setting. 
The book also had song lyrics and what would have been articles from magazines and interviews which just adds to the book feeling like it's about a real artist. 

I do kinda wish the book was a little longer mostly because I just wasn't ready for it to be over. 

This is Isabels debut novel and I'm excited to see what she writes next! 

Thank you to @isabel.banta ,  @celadonbooks and @netgalley for sending me this arc 💖💖💖

The writing is fantastic but the plot isn’t worth the journey. As a girl who grew up loving Britney and NSYNC, I am the prime audience for this. I basically scanned until the end.

I enjoyed this book but it felt lacking. The plot was one that’s commonly repeated and I kept waiting for something more to happen. I liked the ending. I liked the timeline and the inclusion of real life events (like 9/11) but there was nothing memorable about the characters to make me seek this author out again unfortunately.

Unfortunately this book didn't live up to the hype it had. I really struggled to finish this book and ended up listening to it as an audio book once I was done. I did find the audio book did a much better job at capturing the character's personality. I was hoping this would be similar to Daisy Jones but it seemed like a more water downed version of it. The characters and plot just fell short and I didn't feel connected to them. However, I did appreciate the ending and the update on Amber's life. Maybe it's just me but I felt like this were never fully explained and I had wished the characters would have been described in more depth as some of them felt so surface level :( This book wasn't bad but I won't be one I think back to (Whereas Daisy Jones lives in my head rent free). Thank you to NetGalley & Isabel Banta for the complimentary ARC of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book.

I had high hopes for this book after all of the hype but i did not finish it at the 10% mark. I found the book depressing and too juvenile for my liking.

Fantastic author! Great pacing and great development for the characters. I was heavily invested in the plot and descriptive settings.

This one had so much potential but I honestly struggled so hard to get through it. I finished it but I’m not sure k would recommend it

I'm a pop culture junkie, especially for anything 90s-2000s. Unfortunately, after reading this book, I'm just not sure what the point was? I was ready for a coming of age story about a 90s pop star. The FMC was so unbelievably boring. I didn't believe her to be a pop star at all. There was no depth to her, and nothing really happens in the story. Quite the slog.

Honey brings nostalgic vibes to its reader. I grew up on the 90’s and was roughly Amber Young’s age during that time. You get an inside look at what it takes to be a star. This novel is full of spin the bottle, boy bands, pop princesses and star search!
Honey covers an extensive range of topics such as the objectification and the unfair treatment of women by the media, how society often sows dissension between women, the contradictory standards for both men and women, misogyny, the power of dynamics, and so much more. It is not completely superficial. It also raises awareness to other subjects such as the exploding teen stars and women. The complex topics that arise are relevant and even universal. Thank you NetGalley, Isabel Banta and Bonnier Books for allowing me a chance to read this early in an exchange for an honest review.

I was hesitant to read this novel because I felt like it would play into all the late 90s/ early 00's teen stars cliches, but instead, it gave an honest look at how the industry molded and often forced these young impressionable girls into "stereotypes" that often didn't align with who they are as a person. The prose was extremely accessible, and with a topic that all millennials love, this will be an easy book to press into a variety of readers hands!

This one dragged and was quite boring; it didn't give a nostalgic feel to me. Instead, it felt like a fictionalized version of a recent early 2000s pop star's memoir. It felt like things I had already read and I wasn't a big fan. The writing itself was good, but the storyline and character were overdone.

I loved the writing style and the interesting plot of the main character navigating her life! I love when women are portrayed in the spotlight during a not so women centric time period.

Honey felt so nostalgic for me, like i was finally getting the inside scoop on my favorite early 2000’s pop stars. The story was beautiful heartbreaking and fun. I kept having to remind myself this was the authors debut novel because it was that good!

I was in my late teens/early 20s in the late 90s/early 2000s when boy bands and pop princesses reigned so I thought this would be right up my alley. It was not.

The characters are unlikeable (except for Axel) and it just felt like a mash up of Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc. (which I do like them so I should’ve liked the MCs). I love a steamy romcom but the sexualization of this story didn’t work for me.

I kept reading hoping for more but it didn’t deliver.

2.75

"Honey" brilliantly captures the life of an early 2000s pop star, evoking pure nostalgia and transporting me back to the days of the Backstreet Boys, NSync, Christina, and Britney. This book is a treasure trove of nostalgic feels! While some of the dialogue and banter felt a bit flat at times, the overall plot and character development came together beautifully. Amber's character development felt a bit underdone in the beginning, making it hard to connect with her initially. However, the author truly nailed the pop culture vibes, making the story uniquely satisfying. Brittany Pressley, one of my favorite narrators, did an amazing job bringing this book to life. If you love a blast from the past with all the pop culture feels, "Honey" is a must-read!

Thanks to NetGalley & Celadon Books for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

First off, I love the cover. I would pick this up in a bookstore without knowing anything about it. I was immediately pulled in knowing it was about a girl becoming a pop star, how fun! The author did a good job and making me feel like I was a teenager watching MTV again. I will say that I had a hard time connecting with the relationships and wish they were wrote about more.

I felt the story line jumped in a weird way that was harder to follow. Along with that I decided not to finish the book as it was not particularly interesting.

As a child of the 90s and early 2000s, this book felt made for me! I saw so many comparisons to Britney Spears and *NSYNC! It was cool to feel like I was getting insider info, even though I know the book was fiction. I also loved the strong female characters and female friendships. The guys sucked, but at least the girls always had each other, and their friendship was the true love story!

I'm very torn about this book. The premise is so interesting to me, especially as a lover of pop music, specifically in the 90s. It seems like it was made just for me to read. I just left wanting a bit more from this one. I found the pacing of the book to be slightly off, where I had a difficult time getting into it and then not truly caring what happens to the characters in the book at the beginning. By the end of the book, however, I was definitely in it. The story was certainly entertaining, but it was also just so tragic. The theme of misogyny were certainly alluded to, but I feel like not fully developed, and I wish that Amber, the main character, would have taken a more head on look at the music industry during this time instead of just riding the wave. The story itself reminded me of all the popstars from my youth, and was certainly an interesting "inside look," I just felt it was maybe not executed to the best of its ability and left me slightly unsatisfied. That being said, I did enjoy my time, it was just a like not a love for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Celadon books for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.