Mafia Girl by Deborah Blumenthal

Mafia Girl by Deborah Blumenthal
Release Date: March 1st 2014
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What's in a name? Everything if you have my name." At her exclusive Manhattan high school, seventeen-year-old Gia is the most hated/loved girl in school. Why? Her father doesn't have a boss. He is the boss--the capo di tutti cappi, boss of all bosses. Not that Gia cares. But life gets complicated when she meets a cop she calls "Officer Hottie" and feels a suprising chemistry. Then Vogue magazine wants to feature Gia in a fashion spread about real-life bad girls. On top of this, she's running for class president. Can Gia step out from under her dad's shadow and show everyone there's more to her than "Mafia Girl?

This is one of those books that I feel could have gone either way with me, I was either going to love it or hate it. I loved it.

Gia was perhaps one of the most enjoyable protagonists I've read in quite a while. This was, in part, because of the style of readability in the book-I felt as if I was reading from a personal blog or diary, I literally couldn't stop reading.

Gia's life couldn't be more different from my own, the way her family is constantly at risk of one of her father's rivals retaliating, meaning trying to kill them. Yet, here I was relating to her in so many ways, as she really is just as confused and slightly unsure as the rest of us. Gia goes through so much dealing with living in her father's shadow and always being judged because of that. The thing that makes this story so amazing is that she never gives up, and is never completely resigned to just letting nature take it's course. No, she takes chances not always good, not always bad, but she takes them.

Not only was Gia perfectly written into Mafia Girl, but the secondary characters were also very well-developed. Clive, I think, was my favorite. He has just as many demons in his closet as Gia, and yet there he still stands. He is one of the few that does not judge Gia by her last name, and is(like any true friend) always there when she needs him, just as vice versa. The story truly wouldn't have been the same without him.

As a whole, Mafia Girl is a book that will change the way you look at the world around you, and to never judge a person simply by their name. This book, I'm not going to lie, had me absolutely bawling in places-in a good way. The emotion this book brought out in me, let's just say it was worth it. So, overall, I cannot wait to read more from Deborah Blumenthal.

What's in a name? To me, a name no longer means anything. I believe anyone would benefit from knowing someone like Gia.

*I received this book in exchange for an honest review via the publisher/Netgalley. This in no way affected my review.*