Reviews

Golden Pavements by Pamela Brown

jennayra's review

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adventurous funny informative lighthearted

4.0

anjana's review

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5.0

This third book of the series is written around the timeline of 'Maddy Alone', where the children (apart from Maddy) end up at the Academy to get an education about what it means to be an actor and all the other supporting skills people of the theater might require. 

It is a realistic look at what the life of an actor(non-cinema) might consist of, all the hard work, the workload and the struggles. The children are on their own and have to find their feet. Their aspirations continue to remain high but what I love best about this series is the reality woven into the dreams. When the kids start thinking of stardom, the real life knocks the door, peeks in and sets them right. They take each of these reality checks with spirit and that is something unique in books written aimed at children and especially featuring such a romantic profession. In the time we see unfold here, the bane of all starting professionals rears its head. It is not surprising to see the situation has not changed in half a century since the book was written, one needs experience to get a starting job and to get experience, one needs a starting job! They learn the ropes of the profession and there are enough to-do steps here to deter children from jumping on to the bandwagon after reading the book if they are not completely committed. Some of them learn harder lessons than others but by the end they have a new goal and a plan in place. I jumped into the next installment with a lot of excitement.
I received ARC of the reprints thanks to Edelweiss+ and the publishers. My review is completely based on my reading experience. 

avalinahsbooks's review

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4.0

Golden Pavements goes back to all the other characters in the group and how they're living their lives in the school of drama. And the Blue Door Venture nicely wraps up their story and how their new business goes on. What I really liked about these books is that it doesn't do the whole teenage angst and romance bit. These books focus solely on the craft and the passion for theatre, and also friendship. Also perhaps hardship that the teens experience, while trying to launch the theatre and save up some money to start. A lot of books for teens focus on romance, which I find very annoying, cause there's so much more stuff teens could be focusing on instead of swooning over this boy or this girl. Those books are also incredibly alienating to asexual teens. And this is a problem the Blue Door series just don't have! Might be part of why I really, really loved this series. Anyway! This series is definitely worth a read. Just give it a go!

You can also read the full reviews for part one of this series, The Swish of the Curtain, here and part 2, Maddy alone, here.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest opinion. Receiving the book for free does not affect my opinion.

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