4 STARS | The Jelly Bean Crisis by Jolene Stockman

Title: The Jelly Bean Crisis
Author: Jolene Stockman
Age Group: Young Adult
Genres: Contemporary
Publisher: Jolene Stockman
Format: Electronic ARC
ASIN: B008PODAAK
Published: August 1st, 2012
Source: Jolene Stockman
Events: Book Tour | Summer Wrap Up Read-A-Thon | Review Copy Cleanup Challenge
Rating: 4/5 STARS
Purchase: Kindle | Paperback

A total meltdown. The whole school watching. Now Poppy’s an ex-straight-A with no Plan B.

When Poppy Johnson throws away a full scholarship to Columbia, she can only blame the jelly beans. The yucky green ones? Midnight cram sessions and Saturday’s spent studying. The delicious red? The family legacy: Columbia, and a future in finance. Except now it’s starting to look like Poppy’s jelly bean theory is wrong. School has been her life until, but maybe it’s time to start living now.

Poppy has thirty days to try a new life. No school, no studying. Just jumping into every possible world. Thirty days to find her passion, her path, and maybe even love. The Jelly Bean Crisis is officially on.

Poppy Johnson was on the fast track to a successful career in finance, but then the "splinters" began puncturing her perfectly laid out plan. Now she's not sure what she wants, and as she's at the podium accepting the Denton Scholarship, Poppy realizes that everything she has worked so hard to achieve hasn't really been for her. So Poppy is taking a one month period to experience a number of different career paths to find something that would make her happy in the long run.

"Jelly beans have reputations. The pink ones are better than the green ones, the purple ones are better than the yellow ones, and the red ones taste the best. So save the red ones for last. If you eat the best ones first, there's nothing but green ans yellow in your future."

Now, personally, the green jelly beans are my favorite, followed by read and orange. But I found Poppy's Jelly Bean Theory to be an interesting way to prioritize and make decisions, but maybe not the tough life decisions. But I definitely liked the basic premise of saving some of the best for last, instead of having it all now and nothing but yuck later.

The Jelly Bean Crisis is a great book for students coming to the end of their high school careers. It addresses the questions we all ask at some point. What do I wan to do with the rest of my life? What's going to make me happy? I struggled with those questions as a senior, and almost 7 years later, I'm just starting to figure it out. So I guess I'm still waiting for my red jelly beans (or in my case, my green jelly beans, since I think those are the best). But Poppy has a chance that I never had to try a number of different things to figure out what she really wants.

I did find her rejection of the full-ride Denton Scholarship a little unreasonable. She could still accept the scholarship and go to Columbia. Poppy's major is not set in stone. I would have killed (well, not really, but you get the point) to have a chance like that.

The romance was a little lacking for my taste. If your going to add any romance in a book, it needs to have some substance, not little wisps. But the overall message of the story was strong. The Jelly Bean Crisis is well written with a relateable heroine and real life issues. This is definitely a must read for anyone struggling to choose a career path that will make them happy, now and in the future.

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I'm a writer of books, an eater of wedges, and a lover of exclamation marks.

My first book, Total Blueprint for World Domination shows you how to design your dream world and make it happen!

I also love gravy, fizzy drinks and shiny things. My reviews will focus on what I love. Because every book has it’s own special something, right?


Disclaimer: This review was originally posted in 2012 to my book blogs, Zodiac Book Reviews and A Bibliophiles Thoughts on Books.