From National Book Award winner Judy Blundell, the tale of a sixteen-year-old girl caught in a mix of love, mystery, Broadway glamour, and Mob r... read full description
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Sep 19, 2011
Leanne
rated it: 
Good YA historical fiction is hard to find. And when I saw this book, "Strings Attached", gracing the young adult shelf at my public library, I thought: "oh jolijoligosh this has got to be quality YA! I can feel it!". So. I was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hoping for some good stuff here. And I'm so disappointed that I only gave it two stars, and I wish I could give it more.
But this book. This book just didn't do it for me.
Kit Corrigan, the main protago More...
But this book. This book just didn't do it for me.
Kit Corrigan, the main protago More...
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Apr 20, 2011
Tatiana
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Quality historical YA fiction is almost impossible to find. Just to be clear, I don't consider books like The Luxe or The Vespertine to be either quality or historical. I am happy to know that there are authors in existence who take writing in this genre seriously and, you know, do proper research.
Kit Corrigan is a 17-year old girl who is looking for a new life in NYC after a bad breakup with her troubled boyfriend Billy. Making a living as a performer on Broadway in 1950s is tough t More...
Kit Corrigan is a 17-year old girl who is looking for a new life in NYC after a bad breakup with her troubled boyfriend Billy. Making a living as a performer on Broadway in 1950s is tough t More...
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Feb 15, 2012
Reading
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I try not to read the blurb on the book jacket before I read a book. I prefer to discover the story myself without being influenced by the summary. The picture on the book jacket and the title, 'Strings Attached', were enough to spark my interest. 'Strings Attached' gives an interesting view of New York City in 1950. It is not often we get a glimpse of the underworld of the mid-20th century with the Korean War in the background. The story involves secrets and lies that bind two families together
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Feb 02, 2012
Rosemarie
rated it: 
I was astonished at the quality and complexity of this story set in the early 1950s, and classified as young adult. Without overt sex or profanity, the author tells a gripping, slightly gritty story of a young girl’s search for fame and fortune gone terribly awry.
Vivacious, talented Kit Corrigan quits school at 17 and moves to New York to pursue a career in the theatre after breaking up with her boyfriend Billy, whose jealousy led him to beat up a man for dancing with her. Billy’s es More...
Vivacious, talented Kit Corrigan quits school at 17 and moves to New York to pursue a career in the theatre after breaking up with her boyfriend Billy, whose jealousy led him to beat up a man for dancing with her. Billy’s es More...
Dec 17, 2011
Barbara
rated it:
There is so much to enjoy and to think about in this latest offering by the author of What I Saw and How I Lied. Set mainly in New York City in 1950, the book follows the adventures of Kit Corrigan who leaves her home in Providence, Rhode Island, for the glamour of NYC. She and her two siblings have performed on the state since they were babies, and Kit is sure that she has what it takes to make it as an actress. But surviving in the city is harder than she thought, and she finds herself struggl
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Nov 05, 2011
Richie
rated it:
11 September 2010 STRINGS ATTACHED by Judy Blundell, Scholastic Press, March 2011, 320p., ISBN: 978-0-545-22126-9
"I have a picture pinned to my wall"
-- The Thompson Twins, "Hold Me Now"
"I held out the key to him and shook my head.
"'You know the favor I did your family,' Nate said. 'I didn't want to have to mention it.'
"'That's funny, because you just did.'
"'I told you back then, even when you were a little More...
"I have a picture pinned to my wall"
-- The Thompson Twins, "Hold Me Now"
"I held out the key to him and shook my head.
"'You know the favor I did your family,' Nate said. 'I didn't want to have to mention it.'
"'That's funny, because you just did.'
"'I told you back then, even when you were a little More...
Aug 31, 2011
Aaron
rated it:
I quickly became a fan of Blundell after reading her first novel for teens, What I Saw and How I Lied, which won the National Book Award for Youth. She really writes great noir novels for teens, which is pretty much unique from what I can tell. I love them and can't put them aside.
Readers are quickly introduced to 17-year-old Kit Corrigan. It's fall of 1950, and she has recently arrived in New York City with the hopes of making it big on Broadway. It is not like she has no background. More...
Readers are quickly introduced to 17-year-old Kit Corrigan. It's fall of 1950, and she has recently arrived in New York City with the hopes of making it big on Broadway. It is not like she has no background. More...
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Aug 06, 2011
cecilia
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Like many starry-eyed young woman, Kit Corrigan dreamed of dancing it big in the Big Apple and having her name splashed all over Broadway. Yet life isn’t the grand adventure that she imagined it would be after running away from home. When her ex-boyfriend’s father finds her in NYC and offers her a hard-to-resist deal, Kit takes it without fully realizing what it entails beyond free rent, free clothes, a job recommendation, and an attempt to make amends with her ex-boyfriend. What girl can turn d
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Aug 04, 2011
Emily
rated it:
This book. You guys. This book. It made me want to live in 1950s New York City. To be a struggling actress wearing New Look dresses and running from audition to audition with breaks at Woolworth’s for a cup of soup. The setting the author creates and the historical details she includes are absolutely magnificent. They draw the reader into a bygone world of showgirls and the mob, children vaudeville stars and putting on white gloves before going to town. She moves easily from Manhattan to the les
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Jul 18, 2011
Katie
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Judy Blundell marked herself as an author to watch in this genre with her National Book Award winning What I Saw and How I Lied. Her latest book--No Strings Attached--is a worthy follow up. Set in 1950s New York City, aspiring teen actress Kit Corrigan has fled her home in Providence, Rhode Island in hopes of finding fame under the neon lights on Broadway. She quickly discovers though that although you may be able to run away from home you can’t run from your past. Kit’s past catches up with her
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Jun 12, 2011
Renae
rated it:
This was a good book and would appeal to many readers. It addressed the theme of Relationships Gone Awry and had a hint of Mystery and Realistic Fiction to it. Strings Attached has been nominated for Printz Award for outstanding young adult literature and in my mind, has a good chance at winning it.
Young Kit has made her way to the big city during the 1950's where she only knows the people she works with. While trying to make it as an actress, singer and/or dancer she makes connec More...
Young Kit has made her way to the big city during the 1950's where she only knows the people she works with. While trying to make it as an actress, singer and/or dancer she makes connec More...
Jun 11, 2011
Reading
rated it:
Review Written by Andrea @ Reading Lark
I was so excited when I stumbled upon this book at the library the other day. Historical fiction has always been a genre I love and I had noir on the brain after watching my husband play L.A. Noire on the XBox. I have to admit that crime dramas have never really been my thing, but this book might just change that. Judy Blundell did an amazing job of crafting a crime story complete with 1950's mobsters, family secrets, and romance.
K More...
I was so excited when I stumbled upon this book at the library the other day. Historical fiction has always been a genre I love and I had noir on the brain after watching my husband play L.A. Noire on the XBox. I have to admit that crime dramas have never really been my thing, but this book might just change that. Judy Blundell did an amazing job of crafting a crime story complete with 1950's mobsters, family secrets, and romance.
K More...
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Jun 06, 2011
Phoebe
rated it:
If you loved What I Saw and How I Lied, you will love this new book, set in 1950, as well. Kit Corrigan is struggling to make it as a dancer in Manhattan, but it's tough. She reluctantly accepts the offer of her boyfriend's mob-lawyer father, Nate, to live, rent-free, in a building he owns. He also pulls strings to get her a job at the Lido, a plum job. Kit begins to realize that she is in over her head as Nate begins to ask her to do little things, like holding packages, and to spy on custo
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May 23, 2011
Eva
rated it:
Though the situation (teenage dancer from a poor Irish-American family is determined to make it on Broadway) is intriguing and glamorous/seedy, the best part of the book is the backstory, which unfolds in an unpredictable set of flashbacks. All the delicious trappings of a noir classic are here - doomed love affairs, terrible tragedies, deadly secrets, mob death contracts, and even some victims of the second Red Scare. At the center of it all is Kit, who thinks she's street-wise but gets herse
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May 22, 2011
Marseilles
rated it:
Sadly, I was disappointed - I wanted to love this book, having previously been gripped when reading Blundell's earlier novel, What I Saw and How I Lied.
There are a couple of main problems with Strings Attached. The biggest is the characters - I didn't like or care about them. Kit, the lead, is interesting enough, but seems to drift through events with no real drive. I also didn't really understand her relationship with Billy, why it was so important to her, and whether, when so young, More...
There are a couple of main problems with Strings Attached. The biggest is the characters - I didn't like or care about them. Kit, the lead, is interesting enough, but seems to drift through events with no real drive. I also didn't really understand her relationship with Billy, why it was so important to her, and whether, when so young, More...
May 15, 2011
Rachel
rated it: 
Kit Corrigan, one of the Corrigan Three (a set of triplets born in the 1930s), leaves her family and life in Providence, Rhode Island to make a career for herself as an actress and dancer in New York City. After a bit part in a Broadway play wraps up, Kit is floundering. Her boyfriend's father, Nate Benedict, offers her an apartment and a job as a dancer in a popular night club. Unfortunately, he's a mob lawyer and naive Kit doesn't realize that accepting his offer will come with "strings a
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May 03, 2011
Susan
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Strings Attached is a combination noir and family melodrama. It will take an astute reader to keep up with the flashbacks that eventually come together to form a full picture of the many connections between the Benedicts and the Corrigans.
Early on, Nate Benedict accuses Kit's brother of being a homosexual and corrupting his son, and although Blundell drops hints that the relationship between them was unusually close, she fails to fully develop this element. Rereading the passage in th More...
Early on, Nate Benedict accuses Kit's brother of being a homosexual and corrupting his son, and although Blundell drops hints that the relationship between them was unusually close, she fails to fully develop this element. Rereading the passage in th More...
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May 03, 2011
Kristin (Beneath Shining Stars, I Read)
rated it:
Never make deals with the devil. Someone should have told Kit Corrigan this when Nate (Billy's father) offers her an apartment. There's one small catch though, if she wants the apartment, she'll have to get back in contact with Billy and do a couple small favors for Nate. Having lived on someone's couch up until this point, Kit jumps on the offer. However, things don't go nearly as smoothly as she'd like.
Set in 1950, seventeen year old Kit Corrigan works as a chorus girl in a Broadw More...
Set in 1950, seventeen year old Kit Corrigan works as a chorus girl in a Broadw More...
Apr 30, 2011
Liza
rated it:
Blundell's writing was stunning. I felt immediately transported to Blundell's setting, and her no nonsense prose was the reason. For a story with this much drama, Blundell stayed away from overwrought text and instead relayed the events with a crystal-cut clarity. This book convinced me that I will definitely read Blundell again.
A few things irked me, however. Kit is more passive than I would have liked the character to be given the circumstances. That may have been an issue of th More...
A few things irked me, however. Kit is more passive than I would have liked the character to be given the circumstances. That may have been an issue of th More...
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Apr 08, 2011
Darcy
rated it:
Author Judy Blundell takes us back to gangster days of old in the young adult novel, “Strings Attached.” Triplets Kit, Muddie and Jamie Corrigan have grown up in a poor family in Providence, Rhode Island. Since their mother died in childbirth, their father “Da” has raised them.
Kit, a talented singer and dancer, has aspirations in the entertainment industry in New York. She gets a small part in a local production with movie star Jeff Toland. But when her boyfriend Billy sees them toge More...
Kit, a talented singer and dancer, has aspirations in the entertainment industry in New York. She gets a small part in a local production with movie star Jeff Toland. But when her boyfriend Billy sees them toge More...
Apr 03, 2011
Val
rated it:
This is the story of Kit, one of a set of triplets. In 1950, she is 17 and living in New York City trying to make it as a singer/dancer/actress. She has lied about her age after dropping out of school so that she can get the jobs. Her boyfriend, Billy, has enlisted in the army and will be going to Korea along with her brother, who also lied about his age. Billy's father is a successful lawyer, and he is tied in with the mob. For this reason, Billy has always been a bit leary of his father. Even
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Apr 02, 2011
Savi
rated it:
Judy Blundell has a way of writing that transports you to the time and place of her main character, making you feel like you're right in the thick of things. This is the story of Kit Corrigan, her family, her passion to perform and her troubled love life. It's the story of dark family secrets that follow her throughout her life sending it into a tailspin. Kit's voice propels us through this tale letting us know early on that everything comes with a price and soon you begin to see just how much s
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Apr 01, 2011
Diane
rated it:
I haven't read much YA, but this book intrigued me. Its setting, alternating between Providence and New York City in 1950, is unusual for this type of book. The protagonist, 17 year-old Kit Corrigan, has set off for New York to make it big on Broadway. She is a triplet, but the book is not all about her relationships with her siblings, which would have been the easy way to go.
Kit broke up with her boyfriend back home, Billy, who promptly joined the army with Kit's brother Jamie. Billy More...
Kit broke up with her boyfriend back home, Billy, who promptly joined the army with Kit's brother Jamie. Billy More...
Mar 27, 2011
Mark
rated it:
"When a family breaks you don't hear the crack of the breaking. You don't hear a sound."
Kit Corrigan arrives in New York City, at age seventeen, fresh from Providence, RI, broken up with her boyfriend Billy, and eager to prove herself in the theatre and dance capital of the world. It's 1950, and New York is full of possibilities, as well as dangers for a girl like Kit. After a brief stint in a doomed show, Kit crosses paths with Nate Benedict, Billy's father, and a reputed More...
Kit Corrigan arrives in New York City, at age seventeen, fresh from Providence, RI, broken up with her boyfriend Billy, and eager to prove herself in the theatre and dance capital of the world. It's 1950, and New York is full of possibilities, as well as dangers for a girl like Kit. After a brief stint in a doomed show, Kit crosses paths with Nate Benedict, Billy's father, and a reputed More...
Mar 27, 2011
Diana
rated it:
National Book Award winner, Blundell has done it again and presented readers with a suspenseful tale of noir featuring a complex and conflicted teen protagonist and illuminating an era with verisimilitude while at the same time making it real and true for contemporary readers. Seventeen-year-old Kitty, one third of the Corrigan triplets, runs away to New York where she does earn a bit part in a clunker of a Broadway show. Her longtime boyfriend now ex and her brother have enlisted in the Army an
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Mar 25, 2011
Sara
rated it:
Strings Attached by Judy Blundell follows Kit a performer who gets herself entangled in the mob. Kit is working as a chorus girl when she is approached by the father of her ex-boyfriend. He offers to put her up in an apartment if she is willing to contact his son at boot camp and keep him informed as to how he is doing. He then gets her a job as a Lido Doll at a famous night club and things slowly spiral out of control.
While a enjoyed this piece of historical fiction I had maj More...
While a enjoyed this piece of historical fiction I had maj More...
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Mar 24, 2011
Rex Robot Reviews
rated it:
Reviewed by Rex at RexRobotReviews.com
After reading some initial reviews of Strings Attached by Judy Blundell, I was a little worried that I would not be able to finish it. And now I can happily say I was SO WRONG. I read this book in one sitting. The writing is gripping, to say the least- I was totally indulged in 1950's New York and the life of a poor wannabe actress. Blundell throws you into a world full of deceit, family skeletons and murder... twists and turns at every corner th More...
After reading some initial reviews of Strings Attached by Judy Blundell, I was a little worried that I would not be able to finish it. And now I can happily say I was SO WRONG. I read this book in one sitting. The writing is gripping, to say the least- I was totally indulged in 1950's New York and the life of a poor wannabe actress. Blundell throws you into a world full of deceit, family skeletons and murder... twists and turns at every corner th More...
Mar 21, 2011
The year is 1950 and after moving to New York City to pursue her dream of acting, Kit Corrigan quickly realizes that - despite her talent and determination - she's going to need some help in order to be able to stay in the city. This help comes in the form of Nate Benedict, the father of her (ex?)-boyfriend Billy... and a big-time lawyer with mob affiliations. He offers her a nice apartment, new clothes, and a foot in the door at the famous Lido club -- no strings attached, or so he says. The re
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Dec 06, 2011
Kelly
rated it:
This one had a lot of ups and downs for me. The writing is gorgeous and does so much for the story and setting and character development. That said, the pacing is slow. Very slow. More than once I came close to closing the book and not finishing, but I pursued.
I think what bothered me more than the pace (which wasn't a problem in and of itself) was the fact this wasn't REALLY a story about Kit. It was much more about the adults in the story. She happened to be the catalyst for their More...
I think what bothered me more than the pace (which wasn't a problem in and of itself) was the fact this wasn't REALLY a story about Kit. It was much more about the adults in the story. She happened to be the catalyst for their More...
Apr 25, 2011
Emma
rated it:
In theory, this book has it all.
There is a plot. An interesting historical setting. Good writing (though not, perhaps, as lovely as What I Saw and How I Lied). The promise of gangsters and mafia, which, for a reason I cannot explain, fascinate me. If a book says it has gangsters (unless it's current day, baggy pants gangsters) I will read it. Which is why I fell for this book.
It was good. Don't get me wrong. But somehow, it never crossed into great. Ever. It was fine, but More...
There is a plot. An interesting historical setting. Good writing (though not, perhaps, as lovely as What I Saw and How I Lied). The promise of gangsters and mafia, which, for a reason I cannot explain, fascinate me. If a book says it has gangsters (unless it's current day, baggy pants gangsters) I will read it. Which is why I fell for this book.
It was good. Don't get me wrong. But somehow, it never crossed into great. Ever. It was fine, but More...
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