Nancy's Review of The Daughters Break the Rules by Joanna Philbin

Carina Jurgensen, Lizzie Summers, and Hudson Jones are in their freshman year of high school and happen to be the daughters of very well known celebrities. They are trying to juggle school, disagreements with their parents, crushes, and the fame they were born with. The Daughters Break the Rules follows Carina, the daughter of a billionaire who is always too busy with work to take a real interest in her life. Since she is the only heir to her father's company, he demands that she work for him and give up the other activities that she loves like surfing. While working for her father, Carina anonymously leaks a scandal to the press involving her father and his charity, making it seem like he is a very dishonest man. He finds out what she did and cuts her off. No more credit cards, no iPhone, and a much lower allowance. Desperate to go on a snowboarding trip with her crush, she is determined to make money. Carina gets hired by one of the most popular girls at her school to plan New York's Silver Snowflake Ball. She only gets the job based on her father's A-list connections, none of which she can actually use. Carina must figure out a way to plan a party on a very limited budget while pretending to still be the wealthy heiress everyone knows her as, leading her down a path of deceit that could get her into a lot of trouble.

Lizzie is the daughter of a supermodel. Since she did not get her mother's conventional good looks, she feels awkward and uncomfortable whenever her picture is taken. When a YouTube video of her gains popularity and she is noticed by a photographer who thinks she is the new face of beauty, she decides to become a model like her mother, which she never expected. Hudson is the daughter of a pop icon and plans to also follow in her mother's footsteps by recording her own album, despite disagreements with her mother about what Hudson's album should sound like. Lizzie and Hudson take somewhat of a backseat to Carina's story in this installment of The Daughters series. However, the unbreakable bond between these three best friends is still at the forefront of the novel as they navigate adolescence together.

Readers of the first book in this series will definitely enjoy The Daughters Break the Rules. It is fun to see another side to the friendship between these girls when the spotlight is put on Carina's life. This allows readers to see how the girls interact and how they affect each other from a different point of view. It also gives readers a look at another family, showing Carina's relationship with her father and her estranged mother. Even though Carina, Lizzie, and Hudson are surrounded by fame and fortune, the issues that they face are easy to relate to whether you are in high school now or remember what it was like when you were. Philbin portrays teens with such ease, honesty and believability in this delightful novel.

The Daughters Break the Rules is the follow-up to Joanna Philbin's debut novel, The Daughters. The next two books in The Daughters series are The Daughters Take the Stage, available now, and the final installment, The Daughters Join the Party, which will be published in November. Philbin is the daughter of television host Regis Philbin. She grew up in New York City and went on to receive a BA from Brown University. After graduating, Philbin worked at Seventeen, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and Miramax Films. She then completed the MFA program at the University of Notre Dame. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her pug Edie. For more information, please visit http://joannaphilbin.com, Twitter, and Facebook.

What do you think of this review? Have you read any of the books in The Daughters series? Leave a comment to let us know. We love hearing from you!

To read Nancy's review of The Daughters, please click here.