Melodies by: Pamela Srey

Seventeen year old Bianca Grey had a not so usual teenage life. Adopted with an abusive foster mother and unpopular at Philadelphia High School, Bianca found peace with her artistic talents. Pete Carrara Jr., had a different life. He was popular in school, musically talented with good looks and brains. Pete had the ideal perfect life with the perfect family and friends. Love had never crossed his mind until one day when he ran into Bianca. That very day, he thought love to be very possible.

Bianca was guarded and had never let anyone get close to her. No one knew she was adopted, not even the school. The more Pete got to know her, the more he fell in love with her. Bianca was not so certain on how much Pete should know about her personal life but the more she learned about Pete, the more she cared for him. With him, her complicated life wasn't so complicated anymore.

Their young romance blossomed through the difficulty of a drama filled high school and a series of mysterious killings in the city. But just when Pete thought that things were perfect with Bianca, her past surface. Can their love overcome the scariest reality out there, the so called life?

Well, well, well, what did I just stumble upon? I’ll tell you what, a pretty darn good novel by Pamela Srey entitled Melodies, The Bianca Grey Series. Before I begin gifting you with my review of this story, I must provide you with the disclaimer that I do not read or review a lot of Young Adult romance novels, so I was a tad hesitant when requested to do so. But since I was on a roll with reading and reviewing and tweeting and such, I said why not.

So, I began reading about Bianca Grey & Pete Carrara and all of their crazy friends and the caste system that some call high school. Bianca was an awkward high schooler who preferred the company of her books and any artistic medium she could get her hands on rather than wasting her time with her peers and “high school drama'. Pete on the other hand, was a ladies man hands down who was a-'slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am' kind of guy. Basically, he was the average hormonal teenager that thought he was too mature to date the girls at his high school yet preferring to frequent college parties for his latest bedmate.

These two could not be such total opposites in the social statuses at their high school but after a chance meeting on a train, their lives were forever changed. By defying the odds to include the high school caste system complete with mean girls and jerks, a loathsome foster/adoptive mother and her handsy boyfriends, these two lovebirds share a romance that is pure and swoon worthy all at the same time.

I digress. I honestly liked this novel. I mean sure there were a few minor grammatical issues but it never took away from the story. Once I started reading I did not want to let Pete and Bianca go. They were truly likeable along with Pete’s family and his true friends. I would recommend that you run and read this one, not only because it is the debut novel for Pamela Srey but because it is actually a pretty good story. I really do hope that Ms. Srey publishes the second book of this series very soon.