Review Detail

4.7 4

Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality

Young Adult Fiction 348

Pretty is as pretty does

March 08, 2013

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

N/A

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Lexi is tired of spending her weekends following her seven year old sister Mackenzie around to beauty pageants, and is also angry about the money that is spent on this. It doesn't help that her mother and boys at her school consider her "plain". Her friend Benny, however, thinks she has the potential to be better looking and therefore get more boys, perhaps even her long time crush, Logan, who's dating a girl who competes in the high school pageants. Benny dares Lexi to fix herself up when hot football player Taylor asks for her help picking out clothes at the shop where she works, and the ruse is successful-- Taylor asks her out. Lexi dares Benny to fix up his own life and ask out Chris, the boy he's interested in. Soon, both Benny and Lexi are happily dating, leaving their friend Cameron feeling like a third wheel. As her mother's money woes steadily mount, Lexi considers moving to Houston to live with her father, but finds out that he is dating someone. Mackenzie's pageants are pushing the entire family to the edge, and Lexi is starting to feel like Taylor is only interested in her looks. Can Lexi manage to get control of the various facets of her life?

Good Points

While this has a high school girl as the main character, it's also very suitable for middle school. I haven't seen a lot of fresh romances lately, so this was a very welcome read. I liked Lexi, and her efforts to "improve" herself are motivated more by wanting to feel better about herself than by wanting to impress other people, although she does. A very fun read.