Review: The Standout: A Robin Bricker Novel

The Standout: A Robin Bricker Novel by Laurel Osterkamp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Robin is finally getting the life she wants—a great guy, a good start to her career and a chance to take her career to the next level with a second appearance on a reality show. The only problem? Indiscretions from the past are coming to haunt Robin, and they won't stop until Robin's life is ruined.

The Standout is an interesting mystery that leaves you wondering what someone would do to ruin another person's life and what motive they could have to do so. Throughout the book, it remains much of a mystery on just who the culprit could be trying to ruin Robin's chances at greatness. Could it be her old friend? Her soon-to-be-sister-in-law?

This book is not the first one of a series, so I felt a little out of sorts reading it without the knowledge of the previous books. I was genuinely intrigued to find out about who was trying to make Robin fail, though once I got halfway through the novel, it became about other people. While Robin tells most of the story, there are parts of the book that change narrator, giving Robin's brother Ted and Robin's model Zelda a chance to tell their own stories.

That's where the book seemed to lose its steam. Not only was the perspective of the narrator changed, but every time it switched to Ted or Zelda, the story seemed to backtrack, trying to give them more of a full plot line of their own. And while I don't want to give any spoilers, the person it turned out to be making Robin's life hell came from nowhere and didn't seem strong enough in motive to really bother with all the trouble in the first place. The story is well written, though I think the narrator's podium got a little crowded. I would still consider reading more books in this series.

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