Pop-Out Girl


Fiction - Drama
230 Pages
Reviewed on 03/25/2017
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Arya Fomonyuy for Readers' Favorite

In Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury, an ex-convict returns home to Las Vegas to discover that his girlfriend is with another man. Zane is a possessive and vindictive lover whose jealousy takes control of him. He can’t stand to see Jen in the arms of Colton. Possessed by jealousy, he hatches a very sinister plan to hurt Colton and he will stop at nothing to see Colton hurt badly. However, in his rashness, he ignores many things and his plans don’t work the way he’d planned. A shooting that targets Colton goes wrong and it is Colton’s boss who gets hurt. He is lying in the hospital and no one knows if he’ll ever come out of a coma. What happens next is up to the reader to find out, but there is a lot to look forward to in this thrilling story.

Irene Woodbury has created a masterpiece around a theme that will hit home for many readers — love and jealousy. She develops other themes in the story, including the painful path of revenge, friendship, and romance. The prose is excellent and the author has a very unique and compelling narrative voice which allows the different points of view to come out beautifully and distinctly. The writing is filled with great descriptions that get the reader emotionally involved in the story. It is interesting to see how the author uses dialogue to enhance plot and to build conflict. I loved the fact that the plot is multi-dimensional, complex, and fast-paced. Pop-Out Girl features an enticing setting, compelling characters, and a plot that doesn’t allow the reader any chance of putting the book down. It was really enjoyable.

Gisela Dixon

Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury is a fiction drama novel which revolves around the life of Jen as the main protagonist. That being said, the story is woven in such a way that there are a number of other important characters, namely, Jen’s current boyfriend Colton, her ex-boyfriend Zane Hollister, her mother, and of course her friends. The story begins when Jen has just come out of an accident and is temporarily out of work. Zane was her first relationship and, although they are no longer together, Zane harbors a deep jealousy and wants Jen back. This leads to a series of increasingly violent attempts including assault, kidnapping, rape, and even forced marriage. There is another twist in the story when Zane accidentally targets Colton’s boss, Matt, who turns out to be someone with a secret. The plot continues with many twists and turns until the very end.

Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury is a fictional story set in contemporary modern day USA. The writing is fairly fast paced and the book turned out to be an easy read. Although I appreciated the character sketches of Jen, Zane, Colton, Brandi, and others, I couldn’t help but wonder if Zane would have been apprehended sooner had other steps been taken. That being said, I did enjoy his dark, brooding, and somewhat delusional character portrayal and could see things from his point of view. Overall, this is a slightly dark fiction read that readers who enjoy this genre would appreciate.

Christian Sia

Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury is a novel that explores the sinister depths of jealousy and how human nature can be poisoned to exact revenge. After serving time in jail, Zane Hollister comes back home to Las Vegas, but to his great dismay, his girl is with another man, Colton, and it’s something he can’t just take. His jealousy builds up pretty quickly and he decides to get Colton completely out of the picture. But his plans seem to go from one disaster to another: a planned accident that doesn’t succeed, and a shooting that puts someone else in the hospital and not the intended target. How far will this man go to exact revenge and can the police stop him?

This is a story that is character-driven, and readers will want to see what happens to both the villain and the good guys. The characters — Zane, Jen, Brandi, Colton, Lizard, Norris and Matt — are well-developed and their roles fit perfectly into the powerful conflict that sets the dynamics for this gripping story. Zane is a character that readers will have no trouble hating. They will equally care about the relationship between Jen and Colton. I enjoyed the author’s use of suspense, developed around the shifts in points of view and scenes. Irene Woodbury’s writing is superb and the prose will pull readers in with its cute sentences and the author’s unique phraseology. The themes of crime and investigation, love and friendship, jealousy and revenge are masterfully woven into the fast-paced plot. Overall, Pop-Out Girl is an enjoyable and a gripping story with characters that readers will live with, a great read.

Rabia Tanveer

Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury is the story of love, vengeance and finding what is lost. The novel follows Jen and Colton, two people who fell in love at the right time for each other. Jen is a showgirl who hasn’t had much luck in finding her one true love. She had to kiss a lot of frogs before she was able to find her Prince in Colton. He is the perfect guy for her. He is loving, honorable, decent and very handsome. Her life is perfect and she cannot wait to spend the rest of her life with Colton.

However, tragedy is waiting just around the corner. Her ex-boyfriend, Zane, is out of prison after two years and he is hell bent on getting Jen back. He is not giving up and he will go to all lengths to get her back, even if it means that he will have to kill Colton and kidnap Jen to force her to marry him. During all this chaos, something very unexpected happens, something that she never expected. What is it? Can Colton and Jen stay together with Zane on their tail all the time?

This was a thrilling, action packed romance/drama novel that you will have no desire to put down. I really liked the way Irene Woodbury wrote Pop-Out Girl and I really loved to hate Zane. I really liked Colton and I really liked the relationship between him and Jen. He was calm and collected when things were going to hell. Woodbury’s writing style is very calm and engaging, plus the cover of the novel is really good. I really enjoyed it.

Sefina Hawke

Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury is a fictional drama novel that would appeal most to a mature young adult and adult audience that enjoys fictional dramas. Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury takes place after the end of a two-year prison sentence for Zane Hollister. Just released from prison, Zane Hollister finds his lover with another man. Finding his once lover with another man causes Zane to go off the deep end as he is determined to have Jen and make her his, no matter what.

Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury is packed full of drama at every turn. There is Zane Hollister who becomes a murderous stalker, willing to kill off any competition coming between him and Jen. He even goes so far as attempting to force her to marry him through kidnapping. Then there is Jen’s current boyfriend’s boss who ends up getting caught in the crossfire. Jen’s mother discovers that Jen’s boyfriend’s boss is actually not who he says he is. All of that is just the beginning in this dramatic novel; there is literally not a single dull moment nor a single slow one in this novel. There is so much going on that I had to go back and reread to make sure I knew about everything. This style of multiple story lines reminds me a lot of the way the Game of Thrones TV show is organized. Overall, I have to say that I loved every page of Pop-Out Girl by Irene Woodbury; I only hope that there is a follow up in the future!

DiDonovan

Pop-Out Girl will appeal to fans of women's fiction who look for stories of feisty females in difficult situations and provides the realistic story of a couple challenged when an ex-boyfriend leaves prison and begins stalking them. Jealousy and its dangerous course is one of the primary themes of the story as Jen and Colton face a dangerous convict who still has the idea that Jen is his girlfriend, despite obvious indicators otherwise - and who has no intention of letting her go.

As violent encounters escalate and drag innocents into Zane's quest to regain his position in Jen's life, Jen faces difficult decisions that test her resolve, her future, and her inclination to view the world through the eyes of an optimistic romantic.

Jen's career, also shelved, was serving as a 'pop-out girl': one who emerges from giant cakes to then sing, dance, and provide a stripper show for special events. This theme - of emergence, daring, and putting on a display - pops up through the story, which foregoes a slow build-up in favor of a vivid kidnapping scene and just keeps escalating from there.

Jen's perspective isn't the only focus to this story: Jen's mother Brandi, who is a cocktail waitress, faces the fact that her first love from long ago, Jen's father, has also inadvertently become part of Zane's dangerous spree, and her involvement and perspective are also developed as one of the strong threads connecting family and love.

From how Jen squeezed a romance with Colton into her busy career as a pop-up girl to the terrors of being stalked by a relentless ex with murderous intentions on his mind, Pop-Out Girl excels in interconnected subplots and in capturing a winning background filled with the glitz and glamour of its Vegas setting.

There were a few lapses in punctuation, for example, a period left off the end of a sentence ending with quotation marks. But these instances do not detract from the overall plot.

Women who look for realistic, powerful stories of love and survival, jealousy and confrontation, and change will find Pop-Out Girl a winning leisure choice that probes troubled relationships, alienation, and the long and rocky path to home.