Review - The Victoria in My Head by Janelle Milanes

The Victoria in My Head
By Janelle Milanes
Published September 19th, 2017 by Simon Pulse
400 pages

*I received an e-arc of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!*

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Summary from Goodreads.com:

Victoria Cruz inhabits two worlds: In one, she is a rock star, thrashing the stage with her husky voice and purple-streaked hair. In the other, currently serving as her reality, Victoria is a shy teenager with overprotective Cuban parents, who sleepwalks through her life at the prestigious Evanston Academy. Unable to overcome the whole paralyzing-stage-fright thing, Victoria settles for living inside her fantasies, where nothing can go wrong and everything is set to her expertly crafted music playlists.

But after a chance encounter with an unattainably gorgeous boy named Strand, whose band seeks a lead singer, Victoria is tempted to turn her fevered daydreams into reality. To do that, she must confront her insecurities and break away from the treadmill that is her life. Suddenly, Victoria is faced with the choice of staying on the path she’s always known and straying off-course to find love, adventure, and danger.

From debut author Janelle Milanes comes a hilarious and heartfelt tale of the spectacular things that can happen when you go after what you really want.

Rating: 

So, it has definitely been awhile since I have typed up a review for this blog and I'm honestly feeling a tad bit rusty. :) Let's see how this goes though. 

The moment I saw the cover of The Victoria in My Head I knew I had to have it. The one thing that I love just as much as books (if not a tad bit more) is music. When I find a book about music? AMAZING! So I knew that I was going to want to read this before I even read the synopsis. When I found out that this book was about a girl named Victoria Cruz and how she dreams of being in a band I knew that I was going to fall in love. 

I wasn't wrong. The Victoria in My Head felt like a retelling of my own life. I could relate to Victoria in so many ways and I loved that! Victoria is Cuban American and while I'm Mexican American, there were so many similarities between her family and life and mine. And the main thing that I could relate to was her dream to be in a band. I absolutely LOVE to sing but I am dreadfully afraid of performing live so Victoria's journey was an inspiring one for me. 

But enough about me and more about how awesome this book was for being a debut for this author. This book was relatable (obviously) and it was real and fun. Victoria sounded like a real teenager and acted like one. She made mistakes here and there but they were normal for someone her age. I honestly had no problems with her character because I enjoyed watching her grow and gain confidence in herself. Her best friend and new friends were awesome as well. They were all unique and supportive when needed. 

The music aspect was just plain awesome but I'm sure you knew I'd say that. I loved watching Victoria and the band practice and grow together musically and as a group of friends. I felt like I was there watching them perform and like I could imagine performing myself. 

I was also pleasantly surprised with the romance aspect of this book. In the beginning, I thought I knew where it was going and then it changed course. 

If you can't tell, I really enjoyed this book! The conversations were witty and entertaining as was the whole book. The characters were great and I enjoyed the growth that they went through. I also enjoyed reading about Victoria's relationship with her family and the way they interacted. It reminded me at times about my family which is wonderful to see in books. And any book that has all of that AND music is an A+ in my book. :) I definitely recommend this book to music lovers and basically anyone in need of a pretty great read! 

Vanessa