Tuesday, February 26, 2013

She's More Than Just Another Teenage Beauty Queen


Expected Publication: March 1st, 2013
Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality
By: Elizabeth Eulberg
Point Press
ISBN-13: 9780545476997

Don't mess with a girl with a Great Personality.

Everybody loves Lexi. She's popular, smart, funny...but she's never been one of those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup).

Lexi's sick of it. She's sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She's sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She's sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she's sick of having all her family's money wasted on a phony pursuit of perfection.

The time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren't going to know what hit them. Because Lexi's going to play the beauty game - and she's in it to win it.

Review

     Lexie has great personality, everyone says so.  But no one ever once tells her she's pretty, especially not her Mom who is obsessed with her little sister Mackenzie's beauty pageants and will do anything to finance them - even ignoring the bills and boring money from Lexie that she never pays back.  With her Dad wrapped up in his new girlfriend and the guy she likes never noticing her except as a pal, Lexie makes a bet with her best friends and starts to gain notice when her appearance becomes more glamorous.  Lexie likes the attention but is afraid that none of it is real.  If Lexis goes back to being her average self, will she still get the guy and can she stand up to her Mom before their family is destroyed for good?  This book was funny, heart-breaking and like watching a bad episode of reality T.V. only with some actual value.  I truly liked the perspective of Lexie but she was so real and made a few dumb decisions that made me want to shake some sense into her.  The romance with Taylor made me swoon and the stupidity of her crush on the scumbag who is 'the cutest boy in school', whose girlfriend does pageants with her sister is just cringeworthy.  The story moves at a decent pace, but I sometimes felt like I was watching a filler episode of a soap opera, waiting for the big stuff to happen (baby swap, murder, you know - the usual!).  The interactions with her Mom were awful and unfortunately probably realistic for some people living that particular lifestyle of pageants.  The way her Mom stole from her and refused to treat her equally with her little sister (who was being forced to do pageants she had come to hate, because Mom loved them) was heart-wrenching.  The conclusion of the novel was like watching an after school special and the loose ends/remaining conflict was very unsatisfying to me as a reader.  Overall, a good fluffy read if you like your fluff with some substance to it.  But not something that I will be re-reading.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is March 1st, 2013.*

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