The Daughters by Joanna Philbin

The Daughters by Joanna Philbin

The only daughter of supermodel Katia Summers, witty and thoughtful Lizzie Summers likes to stick to the sidelines.

The sole heir to Metronome Media and the daughter of Karl Jurgensen, outspoken Carina Jurgensen would rather climb mountains than social ladders.

Daughter of chart-topping pop icon Holla Jones, stylish and sensitive Hudson Jones is on the brink of her own music breakthrough.

By the time freshmen year begins, unconventional looking Lizzie Summers has come to expect fawning photographers and adoring fans to surround her gorgeous supermodel mother.  But when Lizzie is approached by a fashion photographer who believes she’s “the new face of beauty,” Lizzie surprises herself and her family by becoming the newest summers woman to capture the media spotlight.

The Daughters is the debut novel by Regis Philbin’s daughter, Joanna Philbin. I almost feel bad opening up the review with that statement because the book is so much about separating yourself from your famous parent and creating your own destiny. But in the same way that living in the shadow can cause a child to question where they begin and their parents end, for a writer it can provide great material! That is exactly what Joanna Philbin did with her debut novel. She took her own personal experience and wove it into an enjoyable journey for the characters of Lizzie, Carina and Hudson.

The Daughters, the first in a series, focuses on Lizzie Summers. What could have been a simple story about an ugly duckling living in the shadow of her super model mom, became a story with an interesting and complex journey. Lizzie is insecure about her looks but instead of writing an extreme makeover type of book, Philbin wrote one about fully accepting yourself, flaws and all. This is a well written story with real characters and enough drama to keep you flipping the pages (I read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down).  Philbin excels at portraying teens honestly and there isn’t a fake note in this entire book. The drama in the boy department doesn’t disappoint either. It ends on a cliffhanger that will have readers desperate for Carina’s story, which I hear comes out in November. I whole-heartedly recommend this book for both teens and adults.