The Vinyl Princess - Yvonne Prinz

Title: The Vinyl Princess
Author: Yvonne Prinz
Publisher: Harper Trophy Canada, 2010 (Paperback)
Length: 313 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Realistic Fiction
Started: July 27, 2010
Finished: August 4, 2010

Summary:
From the publisher's website:
Summer is here, and 16-year-old Allie, a self-professed music geek, is exactly where she wants to be: working full-time at Berkeley’s ultra-cool Bob and Bob Records. There, Allie can spend her days bantering with the street people, talking the talk with the staff, shepherding the uncool bridge-and-tunnel shoppers, all the while blissfully surrounded by music, music, music. It’s the perfect setup for her to develop her secret identity as The Vinyl Princess, author of both a brand-new zine and blog. From the safety of her favourite place on earth, Allie is poised to have it all: love, music and blogging.
Her mother, though, is actually the one getting the dates, and business at Allie’s beloved record store is becoming dangerously slow—not to mention that there have been a string of robberies in the neighbourhood. At least her blog seems to be gaining interest, one vinyl junkie at a time….

Review:
I can't remember the last time I read two books back to back that I happened to love, so this is new for me.This book is so amazingly wonderful and quirky, I fell in love with it. I had heard things about The Vinyl Princess but was reluctant to pick it up because I'm the furthest thing from a vinyl enthusiast...I eagerly embraced iTunes like it was the best invention since the printing press, so according to the book I'd be a mega blasphemer. However, the soul of this book is Allie and her music, and even though I only got about a quarter of the music references in the book (I love my music, I'm just really really eclectic in my tastes), it didn't detract from my appreciation of the content. You don't need to love Allie's music to like the story, you just need to like music period. This book didn't really develop an actual problem until more than halfway through the book, but I didn't care, I could've read about the daily exploits of Allie, her family, and Bob and Bob's until I developed a headache from eyestrain, all the characters were just so appealing and relatable. And quirky too, I love my characters with really unique traits I can identify after only a few pages. This book had me laughing too, I quoted parts out of it for my husband and he loved it as well. If I wasn't reading two other books at the same time as this one, I would've plowed through it in one go, it was that engaging; the writing is witty, the characters feel like old friends, and tons of music. I loved this book even more because it managed to work in a Willy Deville/Princess Bride reference! "Storybook Love" by Willy Deville (the theme song for The Princess Bride) was one of my wedding songs, so I was amazed to see it in passing while reading.

Recommendation:
If you are a music lover at heart and the soul to go with it, read this!

Thoughts on the cover:
I love the headphones and the headbanger pose, it's the perfect image for this type of book. The only thing I don't like is the look of the model, she looks prissy and it even says in the novel that Allie doesn't wear makeup; so in my opinion if you cover up the model's face, you have the perfect cover.