REVIEW Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass

Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass

Aubrey knows better than to believe high school love lasts. She knows better than to be one of those girls who believe that their boyfriend is going to be hers longer than just a minute. No-- Aubrey and her friend (Shelby, Danica, and Melissa) are evolved. They know that they can't expect a boy to settle, so they settle for having as much fun as they can for the time they do get. No hurt feelings when someone changes their mind, no regrets. But then Nathan Diggs moves to town and shakes up Aubrey's life and makes her question the theories that she used to swear by after Shelby came up them.


I was really excited to read this book. It's so rare to read a book from the perspective of the popular kids, the cool kids, the kids who suck face instead of reading about blood suckers. And I really hoped this wasn't going to be one of those books, those books the author writes that indulges them instead of really saying something. But it really was.

Don't get me wrong, this book was definitely enjoyable, but Aubrey's character is forgettable and instead what I remember are the raunchy details and how I complained to my friend about how mean these girls were. The way they treated their ex-friend whose past transgressions led to the theories is an abomination. It's so much girl-on-girl-hating that I can't believe no one said anything. I can't believe anyone stood by and watched them destroyed this girl when her only mistake was giving a guy she liked her phone number.

Sure, Nathan Diggs was a good character, but in the end he was the only one who I liked. I know characters, just like real people, can't be perfect, but all the other characters, while flawed, were so unrealistically ignorant of their shortcomings and of their mistakes. Shelby, a character I wasn't sure if I was supposed to love or hate, was the only real character in the book, and even then her "indescribable beauty" and other flawless aspects, while possibly intended to draw a comparison between what's outside and what's within or between being flawless or being flawed, with Bass's unskilled writing were just combating each other and made Shelby unrelatable, making her as untouchable as the idea of a manic pixie dream girl.

I enjoyed the book all the same, but as a light read, something fun. I considered not finishing it, but I was interested to see how the only good part of this book-- the evolution of Nathan and Aubrey's relationship-- ended.

If there's one reason I would have put the book down, and I really did consider it, was that Aubrey kept referring to her and her friends as "evolved" and shaming other girls who she didn't think were. Other girls who were losing points for team girl, while she and her friends made out with whoever wanted them, scared of their feelings and instead just letting themselves be used and left and recycled. I wanted her to see sooner, I wanted her to realize her false sense of superiority that came from ideas stemming from insecurity and fear made her more vulnerable, more naive, and made her sound shallow and, to be quite honest, incredibly immature.

This would, however, be a really good guilty-pleasure read. If you just need something easy and raunchy, I'd say go for it-- through your local library.

Rating: 2/5
Would I Recommend: Yes, for a light read if you need a scandalous book to read, but no if you want something that's actually well written.
To... High schoolers exclusively. Maybe.
If You Liked...
"Pretty Little Liars" by Sara Shepard

My Playlist for this Book:
"Break Up With Him" by Old Dominion
"Sex" by The 1975
"Bang Bang" by Jessie J

Links:
Buy this book on Amazon here, Barnes and Noble here, Powell's here, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!!
Find it on Goodreads here and Shelfari here.
Read a negative review from Nosegraze here, or a more positive one from Midnight Book Girl here.

Peace out girl scouts :)

R

May Wrap-Up and June TBRs 2015

It's June tomorrow (which is crazy) so get pumped! This means tomorrow I will be switching from my May books to June books and thus I will be filling you in on how the last month went and how the next month looks. Of course, other books will be added as the month goes along, so these are just the books I for sure know I'll be reading this month (starting AFTER finals, naturally). I will rate all the books I read in May, and link more in-depth reviews that I've posted in case you're interested to read more! Feel free, as well, to comment any suggestions for this month! I'm really getting back into reading, and I'm glad to be able to share it with you :)

May Wrap-Up

Geek Girl by Holly Smale

One Sentence Summary: Geeky, British fifteen-year-old goes to a mall with her aspiring-model friend  but ends up getting discovered herself, but struggles with how to tell her conservative mother and how to handle telling her best friend.

Rating: 2/5

Five Word Review: 1) Immature (at times); 2) Entertaining; 3) Shallow (i.e. not too deep in themes); 4) Funny; 5) Empowering (would recommend to middle school girls).

Full Review HERE.

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

One Sentence Summary: Sydney grew up in the shadow of her charismatic older brother until his streak of reckless behavior ends with a true bang, sending him to prison and Sydney into a different school and a different group of friends to escape the whispers and the talk, but she can't avoid reality and she can't avoid her parents, who still see her brother more than her despite the fact he doesn't live in their house. (Yes, that was a run on, but it's still just one sentence and the story's too complex for a simple summary.)

Rating: 5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Complex (in themes, storyline, and characters);

2) Honest; 3) Beautiful; 4) Relatable; 5) Captivating (I read it straight through)

Full Review HERE.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

One Sentence Summary: Told in alternating first and third person, this book tells war stories in fiction written like nonfiction set during Vietnam.

Rating: 5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Intense (it's a war novel); 2) Revolutionary (in its writing); 3) Remarkable (it's no only well written it's ridiculously deep);

4) Witty; 5) Life-Changing

Full Review HERE.

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

One Sentence Summary: Ezra Faulkner was a tennis star and the probable Homecoming King, until his leg was shattered in a car accident when he left a party (sober) after catching his girlfriend with... well, not him. Enter Cassidy Thorpe and his childhood best friend and the new Ezra.

Rating: an enthusiastic 5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Intelligent; 2) Gorgeous; 3) Intricate;

4) Tragic; 5) Relatable.

Full Review COMING SOON. (I just finished it today- it's incredible :) )

Love & Other Theories

One Sentence Summary: Aubrey knows better than to fall in love, because all boys are good for is indulgence and then moving on-- that's what the theories are for: avoiding heartbreak-- so when Nathan comes into her life, and the theories are tested, she wonders if she's been going about it all wrong.

Rating: 2/5

Five Word Review: 1) Shallow; 2) Entertaining; 3) Though-provoking (not in like a deep way but more like a huh, I never thought about it that way before way); 4) Funny; 5) Enjoyable

Full Review COMING SOON.

Notes From an Accidental Band Geek by Erin Dionne

Okay, so I started this book but I couldn't do it. I couldn't for the life of me force myself to read it. The story was probably fine, but the main character was so unforgivably whiny, I just couldn't take it. The sad thing is I totally would have enjoyed the story, I'm sure, and I'm bummed I can't read it and I hate that I can't but I just couldn't do it.

This book would probably be fine for a middle schooler to read, and I'm sure that it's just fine, but I couldn't forgive it.

This is a book people seem to either hate or love, but even as a self-confessed band nerd (I'm a drum major for goodness sake) I couldn't even get past the first chapter. The setting and feel is believable, but I couldn't get into it.

June TBR

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

What it's About: Cadence Sinclair Easton and her family all travel up to their beach house each summer on Cape Cod. This book works to uncover what she's trying her hardest to remember, through a painkiller haze and a sea of amnesia trying to remember exactly what happened two years ago in this place that used to be her escape.

Why I Picked It: Aside from having heard from like every book blogger that this is an amazing book, the premise of this book is so enticing and I can't wait to read this poolside.

Reviews of this book:

New York Times

Los Angeles Times

The Guardian

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender

What it's About: Willa is forced to move to LA with her mom when she remarries a famous director, all the way to a crazy beautiful villa that used to be owned by a famous movie star. But she starts seeing things, and there's a serial killer in the area recreating famous death scenes, and she can't help be morbidly fascinated.

Why I Picked It: The library that I volunteer for makes a list of books for the middle school each year at the end of the school year so students can find books to read over the summer. This was on the list and after working on projects related to the list (making stickers, pulling books, attaching stickers, organizing them into a display), I inevitably found a few that I wanted to read.

Reviews of this Book:

Reading Teen

Confessions of a Bookaholic

Kirkus

Side note on this book: I did check this out of the library at first, but I read the first chapter and I fell in love so I went and bought it. I'm waiting to read it until I can read it pool-side.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

What it's About: Greg went through high school being friendly but not making friends, other than his friend Earl. But his mother starts to encourage him to become friends with the girl in his class who's fighting leukemia.

Why I Picked It: It's become a movie, and before I see it I'd like to read the book. I'm also very interested in the premise but I'm also really apprehensive because I've heard that some of his narrative tools are contrived and lead to the book being ineffective, but I like when books use unconventional methods to tell a story (see: Guitar Girl by Sara Manning).

Reviews of this Book:

The Girly Geek

Kirkus

Jackaby by William Ritter

What it's About: Set in England in 1892, this story follows Abigail who is new in town and meets R.F. Jackaby, a detective with a miraculous ability to see incredible things, including supernatural beings. Her ability to see the details makes her the perfect assistant, and their first case? A serial killer

Why I Picked It: Well, it was on the list from the library. But one of the gorgeous librarians said what a few websites have said: it's like Sherlock meets Doctor Who. I'm so excited to read it.

Side note this cover? THE most gorgeous cover in like ever. I love it I love it I love it.

Reviews of this Book:

Publishers Weekly

Teenreads

These are the four I'm really jazzed to read this month, but I'm sure there will be more to come!

Feel free to read along with me and suggest books!

xoxo

R

REVIEW The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Set during the Vietnam war, author Tim O'Brien created this work of fiction that mimics nonfiction, telling stories about the war centering around characters in one group of soldiers. This book has been hailed as "a marvel of storytelling" and "a book that matters not only to the reader interested in Vietnam, but to anyone interested in the craft of writing as well," by the New York Times. With his ground-breaking approach to story-telling he tackles the complex issues of memory, war, story-telling, and truth in this novel that became an instant classic.

Yes, I was forced to read this for school, but this experience has been by far the most pleasant assigned reading experience I've ever had. My English teacher, for the record, is literally the bomb. Like, literally. And he's so spectacular at teaching in fact that I signed up for a class that only he teaches for next year. So the way it worked was that we had three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) to read the novel, and then that Friday we had a discussion. We did this for two weeks, and read- you guessed it- the first half of the book the first week and the second half the next.

Side note/fair warning: This is going to be a longer review than normal. #sorrynotsorry

The style of this book is that each chapter focuses on a story, or on an idea. Some chapters, let me just say, would also work really well as stand-alone stories (i.e. short stories) and these are my favorites. Specifically "On The Rainy River", "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong", "Speaking of Courage", and "In the Field". So, as I think these are also really representative of the book as a whole, I thought we could focus on them and discuss those.

On The Rainy River

It actually turns out that I had read this specific chapter in a classroom before in eighth grade, which I realized during in class reading. The topic of this chapter is that Tim O'Brien (yes, the author is also a character of the book), gets his draft card and ran away to the Rainy River in Minnesota, which separates the US from Canada. This chapter follows the time that he spends there with an old man, who keeps silent for the most part but O'Brien makes it clear that the man knew exactly what was going on.

This chapter explores one of the main themes of the book, bravery and cowardice. The interest thing about this book is the way O'Brien treats this theme, especially in this chapter in which he says that going to war makes him a coward and that he wasn't brave enough to go to Canada. The effect on this decision that the old man has is great and fantastic, and if you don't read the rest of the book this is an excellent stand-alone chapter. The following is the last few lines of the chapter and some of my favorites of the book.

"The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."

Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

This chapter tells the story of one of Rat Kiley's friends over in the station he was at before moving onto the front. Rat Kiley, a man in character-O'Brien's group is a skilled storyteller and this chapter explores the notion of story telling as well as exploring the idea of femininity verses masculinity. In the story, one of the men in his medical site flew his girl over to Vietnam. The girl then becomes involved in the war, honestly curious of how all the war stuff worked. She went form a naive 17 year old to an unrecognizable woman-of-the-land. Read this chapter, read this chapter, read this chapter, well read this whole book, but read this chapter specifically. Because it was glorious.

Speaking of Courage

One of the darker chapters of this book, this chapter addresses PTSD by following Norman through a part of one of his days. The incredible way that this chapter addresses the mental parts of it are actually really incredible. As someone who has PTSD I think this is a really accurate chapter about what it feels like to have it. I love this book, I love this chapter, and I would recommend as well reading the next chapter, "Notes", which addresses the previous chapter.

In The Field

In the field absolutely broke me. This chapter I don't want to go into too much because I feel like where it is in the book is perfect and if you chose to read this book, I don't want to ruin the flow of the book.

*                                                                             *                                                                    *

Though the book doesn't follow any solid storyline, the stories themselves are connected together by themes and ideas that in the end tie the narrative together. To be honest, I didn't really notice any lack of a storyline until now. That being said, it's not like I could have stopped reading HAD I noticed, because it was a school assignment, and my reading sessions were so focused that I didn't notice.

This book, in short, is literally flawless. Anyone who's read the book however will say that I skipped a big part of the book, like the most important part, but I think that's best for anyone who choses to read it to discover on their own.

Rating: 5/5

Would I Recommend: YES!

To: Mature readers and anyone who likes books about war or spectacular writing.

If You Liked...

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

My Playlist for This Book:

Well I don't really have one-- suggestions?

Links:
Buy here through Amazon, here through Barnes and Nobel, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!! :)
See this book on Goodreads here and Shelfari here.
Read the NY Times review here.

Peace out friends :)

R

5 Pool-Side-Worthy-Books Dose 1: YA Fiction ("Girl" Books)

Summer is basically here! Or at the very least it's fast approaching, considering this is Memorial Day Weekend which means... The Pool! And I don't know about you, but when I go to the pool if I don't want to swim or plan on spending time in the sun (not really sun tanning because I don't tan but more getting myself a healthy dose of that Vitamin D Magic that I am literally medically diagnosed as deficient in Vitamin D).
ANYWAYS here are 5 YA Fiction books typically said to be "girl" books that I've read and totally approve of as pool-side reads.

1. Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford
Okay, sure, the time of the year isn't exactly summery (in fact, it's December, so not at all summery. The exact opposite in fact). But the story is written as three extensive letters from three sisters, and it is crazy entertaining. If you enjoyed the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube (which you should SO check out if you haven't... click here to go to the playlist), you will love this. Off the top of my head I would say this is kind of a mix between Dash and Lilly's Book Of Dares and Audrey, Wait! and Anna and the French Kiss (authors in order: Rachel Cohn & David Leviathan, Robin Benway, and Stephanie Perkins). Basically, read this book at some point in your life!
Song: Little Black Dress by Sara Barielles

2. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
You saw this coming. If you haven't gathered from how often I mention this book that I'm absolutely in love with this book, I'm surprised. If you haven't read it, pick it up and get your swimsuit and sunscreen, get your butt to the pool and read it. Equal parts forbidden love and emotion and family and friends and school pressure and French awesomeness and film, this book is one of the best YA books recently, and Stephanie Perkins is definitely one of the best YA writers out there!
Song: You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift
           I Just Laugh by Never Shout Never!



3. The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
*Note: DEFINITELY a PG-13 book. Not too graphic in the more adult aspects but they're still there. Amazon says grade 10 up, and I would say do with that what you will.*
They say don't judge a book by its cover, but let me just say this book is every bit as magnificent as its cover. Full of first love and other first times, I think this is an awesome summer book because of the whirl-wind nature. This book will sweep you in and hold you hostage in the best way. The way it stands out most is that it's not entirely a book about the "before" but more also about the middle part, the part of relationships that can get skipped sometimes.
Song: Stay With Me Feat. Cady Groves (Acoustic) by Breathe Electric

4. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
It has all of the essentials to a good pool read: mess of a love story, fake boyfriend complete with real feelings, and a mortifying accident that changes everything forever- this time, the letters she wrote to find closure get mailed out to all the boys she wrote them too. But those letters were totally private, and now they're totally not, and it's totally not okay. I would so completely recommend this book that I'm kind of reconsidering rereading it. Sure, this book has some flaws, but all do and for a lighthearted read this is definitely worth picking up- that being said, it's not everyone's cup of tea so I'd read a more extensive plot summary and maybe read a few pages in your local library or book store before deciding.
Song: Mess is Mine by Vance Joy



5. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Pool. Forbidden fruit. Cute guys and not-so-sly spying. Cute kids and politician parents and basically this book is the best ever summer book. Like, pick it up and read it now and you won't put it down until you come out the other side. Summary in short: Girl with uptight politician mother gets pulled into the neighbor's family and of course everything changes.
Song: Sweet Little Something by Forever in Your Mind


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You may have noticed that I entirely left Sarah Dessen off the list... She's getting her own, because... Well, because I love her.

Hope these sounded good to you- what's book is missing from this list, in your opinion?

Happy Summer and happy reading!
xoxo

R

REVIEW: Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

Sydney grew up in the shadow of her charismatic and fearless brother Peyton, but when the prodigal older son's streak of reckless and illegal behavior escalates and changes not only the whole Stanford family but throws an innocent for a loop as well. Sydney's mom treats it like the PTO, like it can all be fixed by cookie sales and dinners with the parents of other inmates-- yes, inmates. And Sydney's father is also  busy with his own life and his own messy relationship with his son. If Sydney felt invisible before, that was nothing compared to now. But after she switched schools, she met the open and warm Cathams- a new best friend Layla and her gorgeous and funny older brother Mac. Yes, Peyton changed everything, but Sydney is determined to change it for the better.

In classic Sarah Dessen fashion, this book weaves together themes with unmatched skill. Family, a classic Dessen theme, plays an integral part in this novel. She also explores self-discovery, as Sydney speaks for herself and grows up before the reader's eyes. The family dynamics set the storyline perfectly, and are realistic and believable. The dynamic between the Mrs. Standford and Sydney is tense, and develops appropriately through out the book.

The relationship I found most interesting was the relationship between the Standfords (and, more specifically, Sydney) and Ames, Peyton's old best friend, who became Mrs. Standford's replacement for Peyton. The relationship represents Mrs. Standford's immaturity when dealing with this situation, and the strained relationship- if you can call it that- set me on edge the way it was supposed to. The craftsmanship Dessen showed while executing this particular part of the story is impressive, and shows maturation in her work.

The voice and writing style is unique to this book, in the same way that the voice of The Moon and More marked a departure from the general tone of her books- which is not to say that they were all the same or bad. This just marks a new era of her work. Sydney writes with a voice mature and eloquent, and simple, but it is entirely appropriate for her age. In fact, Dessen is one of few YA authors who can capture the voice and mannerisms of young adults without making them sound immature. The biggest reason I put down YA books is that the voice of the narrator is too immature; for example, Geek Girl by Holly Smale. That book didn't require the same thought and careful consideration as this Saint Anything. Not to say it wasn't a good book; just obviously more suitable for a younger demographic.

The reason this book is likely to be a favorite of mine (it's too soon to say) is because it is so well written. I'm hard pressed to find a fault in this book; someone on Shelfari or Goodreads said this wasn't a stand-out in Dessen's catalogue, but I disagree. Sure, this isn't the most exciting book; it's not crazy eventful, and there is far more narrative than dialogue. That being said, as someone frequently guilty of skipping text that seems arbitrary or superfluous, I read every word of this book.

In short: buy this book literally now. Or hit up your local library.

Rating 5/5

Would I Recommend: YES YES YES

To: Sarah Dessen fans, high schoolers, well literally anyone

If You Liked...
Any Sarah Dessen book
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

My Playlist for this Book:

Running Out Of Time by Motion City Soundtrack

Practice Makes Perfect by Cute is What We Aim For

Brave by Sara Barielles

I'm Only Me When I'm With You by Taylor Swift

Links:
Buy it on Amazon here, Barnes and Noble here, Powell's here, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!!
See it on Goodreads here or on Shelfari here.
Read an article on the book from Entertainment Weekly here, and see the author's blog here.
She's going on tour for this book! See the tour information here.

Peace out girl scouts

R

xoxo

Book Haul: Independent Book Store Day, Amazon, and the Library

Hey there hey there :)

Let's jump right in, shall we?

Independent Book Store Day

A little while ago, on a fine may day, the nation celebrated Independent Book Store Day. So my sister and I trooped off to a local chain limited to our area. Here are the books I got:

Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass
The one rule to not getting your heart broken in high school: don't fall in love.
A theory I don't subscribe to and probably should, this book follows the popular and beautiful Aubrey as she's put to the test when (you guessed it) a super hot and super different boy comes to the school. It sounds like a cliche, but here's hoping that it'll prove me wrong!

Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu
All's fair in love and war, right? At least, that's what Tabitha is telling herself to rationalize the fact that she is totally falling for someone else's boyfriend-- and not just from afar. Oh no, there are late night instant messages that drag on way past the sun's gone down, and some intimate moments that are usually just for between two involved individuals (and no, that's not a spoiler- it's on the back cover!). Then Life by Committee, a website dedicated to freeing us from our reservations and taking the chances we wish we would, falls right into her lap right when she needs it the most- or the least? I already read this one- review coming soon!

Amazon

Totally only ordered this because she's the bomb and it just came out... so it was shipped to me on the day it came out and I'm so glad because if I had had to wait another day I would have gone insane :)

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
Sydney's life turned upside down and inside out and she it seemed like she was the only one who really understood what was going on. Her mom definitely didn't get that Peyton, her only son, wasn't "away"; he was in prison. And prison couldn't be handled like all his school conflicts, no matter how hard she tried to treat it like PTO. The replacement son creeped Sydney out, and everyone treated her differently, so she changed schools. Follow her as her life changes :)
I've read this one already too (finished it the day I got it #shameless)
I actually also single-handedly convinced my local library to order it :) The amazing pull us long-time volunteers have!

The Library

Speaking of the library, I picked up three books when I was there the other day-- two off the display I was organizing for the middle schoolers because I am, as already stated, #shameless, and another because it had the word "band" in the title and because I live and breathe and dream marching band, I couldn't resist. I guess one good thing came out of me losing my favorite book- I found this one while trying to check it out of the library! Let's hope it makes up for it.

Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Harriet Grammars (yes, the name is perfect for her) had one friend and one stalker and absolutely no interest fashion- that was Nat's (the aforementioned lone friend) thing. But then suddenly Harriet- awkward, geeky, target-prone Harriet- is living Nat's dream. But can she pull this off, and more importantly, will she lose her friends, or family, or herself in the process?
*read my review of this book HERE! :)

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender

Another book I found when I was organizing the shelves for the middle school display, and I'm super excited to read this one. Because a thriller set in Hollywood- what could be better? I'm saving this one for Monday, when the pool opens. Not because it's a quote-unquote "beach read"(which aren't actually a thing, to be clear) but because the premise (and yes, the cover) just scream "pool!" and "summer!" to me :)
(Yeah, that's not a description... so click here to go to the Goodreads page :) )

Notes from an Accidental Band Geek by Erin Dionne

Forced to play an instrument outside of orchestra and- gasp!- stand while playing, Elsie joined marching band to go to an orchestra camp. But it's surprisingly fun (which is true in real life), and she starts to enjoy the music (and the cute boys).
(I'm tired. I don't know much about this book- sorry!)

Other review coming up: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (I have to read it for English!)

Look for these reviews coming up :)

XoXo

R

REVIEW: Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Meet Harriet Manners. Girl. Geek. International supermodel? -from cover of book

"Harriet Manners is a geek. She always has been, and she thought she always would be—but when she's discovered by a modeling agent, she leaps at the chance to reinvent herself. There's only one problem: Harriet is the definition of awkward. Can she transform from geek to chic?"
-Summary of book from shelfari.com.


Written by former model Holly Smale who, much like Harriet Manners in her book Geek Girl, was discovered as a model at fifteen, this book targets the audience of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series (well, not the latest, very adult installment, but the earlier ones), which is to say, middle school girls who have not yet experienced being fifteen. Because, from what I can tell, I was fifteen more recently than Smale and, because of that, I can see that the voice of the narrator is immature for a fifteen year old. At times the dialogue is far fetched and unrealistic, and I had issues with some of the characters. But first, let's get a more concrete description nailed down.

The book starts off with Harriet being Harriet, which is to say endearingly childish and funny in a smart but kind of immature way. Her humor relies on interesting facts that really made the book for me. That's one thing that I loved about the book- even when Harriet was confused about who she was, her voice showed that she was still the same Harriet, just confused about who she was supposed to be. One focus in the book is on Nat and Harriet's friendship, and I have to say that even if this isn't my most favorite book, the fact that Smale focused more of the book on this relationship than the budding romance between Harriet and Nick (a super cute male model with awesome lion-like hair). Nat- for the record- is awesome, and, yes, crazy different from Harriet, and that difference is what causes the storyline: Harriet is a geek, and Nat has wanted to be a model since she was a kid. And now Harriet's living Nat's dream and worries that, considering they were already growing apart as their interests diverged, this could force a bigger wedge between the two of them, one that might mean the end of the only friendship she has.

Except for Toby, her stalker- literally. Another geek, just as strange as Harriet, who literally follows her around and worships at her feet. Don't get me wrong, this isn't entirely unrealistic, but it's too extreme and he's too open about it for it to read realistic. I've had my fair share of boys (and girls) with unhealthy obsessions, but this one is overwrought. The resolve gives it some credibility, and in the end is worth the trouble, but when factored into how unrealistic a lot of aspects of the book are.

Ironically, the unrealistic part of this book isn't the storyline, even though it sounds really outlandish. It's the stuff of daydreams, but it's also the stuff of Holly Smale's teenage years, so it's hard to find a fault in this. And if anyone had the knowledge to write this book, it's Holly Smale; she literally lived that storyline. But the writing is inconsistent; sometimes extremely well thought out and at other times immature or seemingly self-satisfying, which is to say that some moments are the kind of things that one would write in a book on Wattpad, or that would be edited out. Cutesy and insignificant as they may be, these moments detract from the book as a whole.

The character other than Toby that I took issue with was Willbur, who was all stereotypes, misconceptions, and cliches. Entirely unrealistic, his vernacular was ridiculous and not in a charming way. Sure, it was funny, but it, to put it in theater terms, broke the fourth wall and pulled the reader (i.e. me) out of suspended disbelief. I also found the pacing of the book terrible; it took too long for her to be discovered, and then after that there were only two or three big events left in the book. I kept waiting for more to happen.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but I went into it with high hopes and I was a little let down by the immaturity of the writing. That being said, I would definitely recommend this to middle schoolers because the themes addressed in the book are extremely relevant to them, and Harriet's voice will connect to middle schoolers without a doubt. I enjoyed the book just fine as a quick read, and will probably pick up the sequels from the library like I did this one, and will probably read it like I read this one: quickly in one sitting, in only a few hours. I look forward to it, but I'm not bumping them up my to-be-reads nor am I thinking about purchasing them.

Rating: 2/5
Would I Recommend: Yes, but keep the above in mind. It's still a worthwhile read is read purely for entertainment.
To: Middle schoolers, and anyone with patience. It's laugh out loud funny at parts and lighthearted- definitely a good read for when in need of a pick me up if you can handle a few issues.
If You Liked...
The Princess Diaries Series by Meg Cabot (or really any other Meg Cabot book meant for YA or youth readers-- especially Airhead)
Awkward by Marni Bates


My Playlist for This Book:
Unsweet Sixteen by Wakefield
La La Land by Demi Lovato (don't judge me)
Princes and Frogs (Underdog Remix) by Superchick

Peace out bro scouts
R