Honey: A Novel by Isabel Banta is about a young woman, Amber Young, following her passion for singing. In 1997, Amber received a call that thousands of other girls would have killed for. She was allowed to join the girl group called Cloud9, in Los Angeles. Amber is desperate to join the group and leave her small town behind. As the newest member of Cloud9, she crosses paths with other young rising stars, such as Gwen Morris, an ambitious singer and dancer, and Wes Kingston, a member of a famous boy band, ETA.
Amber befriends Gwen when she leaves Cloud9 to pursue her solo career. After seeing Gwen prospering with her solo career, Amber decides to follow in Gwen’s footsteps. As Amber’s career skyrockets and her fame increases, she realizes that her personal life comes under more scrutiny as she gains popularity. She struggles to find people who want to be with her without wanting something in return.
The book started out interesting and then slowly went downhill. I found the characters to be boring, selfish, and one-dimensional. I felt like the novel had the same repetitive drama over and over, and I didn’t like when a character would move on from a relationship without any closure. For example, Amber was in two relationships; in one, she was obsessed with the other person. The other seemed to be a fling, that she was just using them for intimacy but we never know as readers because the author didn’t give much detail other than a few sex scene details. I felt like there wasn’t much going on story wise nor was there much character growth or development. This book felt like a cheap rip-off of “Daisy Jones and the Six”. This novel left me feeling disappointed as it had none of the nostalgia of my youth.
