The Chapel Wars - Lindsey Leavitt

TItle: The Chapel Wars
Author: Lindsey Leavitt
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 2 Stars

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Sixteen-year-old Holly wants to remember her Grandpa forever, but she’d rather forget what he left her in his will: his wedding chapel on the Las Vegas strip. Whatever happened to gold watches, savings bonds, or some normal inheritance?

And then there's Grandpa's letter. Not only is Holly running the business with her recently divorced parents, but she needs to make some serious money—fast. Grandpa also insists Holly reach out to Dax, the grandson of her family's mortal enemy and owner of the cheesy chapel next door. No matter how cute Dax is, Holly needs to stay focused: on her group of guy friends, her disjointed family, work, school and... Dax. No wait, not Dax.

Holly’s chapel represents everything she’s ever loved in her past. Dax might be everything she could ever love in the future. But as for right now, there's a wedding chapel to save.

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So, you want to read The Chapel Wars because you think the idea of two rival chapels fighting against each other sounds like a neat story?  Think again. 

Now, look - there are some cute aspects to this story.  There are also some business things in this book that work.  HOWEVER, there are so many things in this book that just don't jive.

What I Liked:

1. Holly was pretty smart about business stuff.  She knew she needed to make some changes to draw in new customers and increase their revenue.  She wasn't willing to just sit by and let things stay the same and get stale, even though I think she knew deep down there was a snowball's chance in hell of saving her grandpa's chapel.

2. I enjoyed some of the humor in the book.  There were enough moments that made me laugh, that I was willing to bump my rating up to 2 stars.

What I Didn't Like:

1. The insta-love.  I'm not talking the feelings of happiness or butterflies you get in your stomach when you see the boy or girl who lives next door for the first time. No, we're talking all out insta-love dating and hanging all over each other the second Holly Meets Dax.  They meet at her grandpa's funeral, because of course Dax and his bitter, alcoholic poppy go to Holly's grandpa's funeral!  Then, almost immediately, she's pining over him, and thinking of only him all. the. time.  They get together almost instantly - and are the cutest couple ever after one date!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And they call and text and hang out and think about each other all the time. 

Kids: It's okay to take a step back and get to know a person before getting serious with them like that! 

My thoughts on this part of the story could so easily by summed up by a stellar look from one Dean Winchester:

2. Holly's dad.  He was such a mean, spiteful jerk to Holly through the entire book. He treated her like she was an idiot and told her she didn't know anything about running a business.  (Just so you readers know: Holly is studying business administration at her high school - so in my book that makes her a bit more business savvy than your average teenager.)

3.The plot wasn't as well developed as I would have liked.  Everything just moved so quickly and I felt like that author didn't really dig too deep into make the story something more than it could have been.

4. The characters were all pretty one-dimensional.  There was no depth to them - and they all felt like stock images of every other character in the book.

5. Dax and his drinking. Seriously - I want to know where these teens in books keep getting their hands on all this booze?!?!



Overall, this book was not as good as I would have hoped.  Skip it and save your time for something else.