Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Publication date: March 1, 2013
Publisher: Point
Source: an e-galley ARC for an honest review from Point via NetGalley
A hilarious new novel from Elizabeth Eulberg about taking the wall out of the wallflower so she can bloom.
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.
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:
Lexi feels as if she lives in her seven year old sister's shadow. Seven year old Mackenzie is involved in the pageant scene with their divorced mother obsessively encouraging it. The only good thing about it all is that she gets to hangout with the gorgeous Logan since he's there...for his girlfriend.
This is a RANTastic review. You are officially warned.
Lexi is apparently in high school. Not just that, she's an upperclassman with eighteen more months to go until she can go to New York with her best friend and get far, far away from her sickly obsessed mother and bratty sister. I say apparently because she acts like a sixth grader. No offense to the sixth graders out there. Really, I sometimes wondered if Mackenzie was her twin because they acted like the same age. Well, okay, I thought Mackenzie was younger than seven, but still. I sometimes had a hard time believing Lexi was as old as she said she was.
Then, of course, there's the Logan situation. I had a discussion post on here not far back where I talked about love triangles, specifically, the idea of two girls and one guy love triangles. I briefly touched on the part where girl MCs have a tendency to think that they deserve their love interest to love them back.
I posted Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" music video as an example. Then a wonderful commenter named RIN posted a link elaborating on said song. The link is below:
http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/12/cats-taylor-swift-and-girl-hate-in-pop.html
The wonderful people at The Book Lantern wrote a whole post about Taylor Swift and her song along with this annoying trend in pop culture (books included) where girls hate on girls. I would just like to demand say that after you finish reading this review, you should scroll right back up here, click on the blue link, then read this entertaining, true post at The Book Lantern. Then go on and read everything else on their site like I did.
Anyways, basically that's how I felt about her crush on Logan, the guy with the perfectly nice girlfriend. I wish I could say more about him, but I don't do spoilers of any kind. At least, I really try not to.
Then we move on to Taylor. Taylor is actually someone I like. I don't connect with him or swoon, but he is a nice guy. I want to slap Lexi over how she acts with him. Girl, be grateful. Although not every ending has to be concrete and solved, I personally wish there was something more definite on him. Once again, I wish I could say something more about him as a person and his choice at the end, but I resist on the fact of not wanting to be spoiler-y.
While I'm picking at the characters, I'd like to add something about Cam, one of her best friends. I didn't get her. I didn't. I actually thought that she had some kind of crush on Lexi. I mean, I know they're best friends, but I just didn't get her whole attitude with it. Sure, she doesn't want Lexi to be hurt or to change or to think she's not good enough, but Cam was weird to me. I prowled around Goodreads and it looks like I'm the only one who thinks that. If you've read it, let me know what you think, please!
Her twisted mother was someone who was getting on my very last nerve. I know she was probably supposed to, but I couldn't stand her. I think she had a mental disorder, I really do. After her divorce and a little pageant win with then-two year old Mackenzie, Lexi's mom gets sickly obsessed with it all. To put it simple, she was psychotic twisted. Was she drinking? I wondered if she was an alcoholic or had any kind of bipolar issues. She blamed Lexi for everything and after she did a terrible, atrocious thing, she was suddenly all nice-nice, but then after another thing happened, she went back to thinking that she had a devil child out to get her and that she's a victim of a mother. She deserved that run-on sentence I just made too.
Mackenzie confused me. She doesn't really know her father as well as Lexi since their father moved, I think, right after she was born. She acts like a self-centered brat, blaming Lexi for everything, I'm guessing having insecurity issues the size of a wooly mammoth, and since she's still Lexi's baby sister, she automatically deserves her sister's support. My little sister has never acted like that so I'm not exactly sure how I'd behave if she did, but I think I would act a lot little less civilized. She goes from the demon in the tiara to miraculously sensitive and nice at one point. I was like, "WHOA, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? WHO IS SHE AND DID I MISS SOMETHING?" Blew my mind, ya'll.
Her dad is the stereotypical divorced dad, but I hated him too. He's all, "You're my little princess, Lexi." However, he then doesn't show it by not fighting to see her as much as I thought he should. Lexi briefly mentions it, but then it seems like it doesn't matter as much anymore. It doesn't help that he chooses his six month GIRLFRIEND who hasn't even MET her over his own DAUGHTER.
Are you serious right now? You are not a good father did I put good? I meant to only say NOT A FATHER AT ALL for being so stupidly selfish, sir.
Basically, I would not have cared if every single character was blown up. In my mind, they had dived off my "I care about you" ship. They didn't even deserve to be in the underground part of my ship with the rats. They just had to get off my STINKING SHIP.
For one quick moment, I'd like to go back to Lexi. This is all about her having a great personality, right? Well, I didn't see it. She was witty, mostly in conversations with Logan, but I didn't think she had a great personality. She went from "My personality is the greatest part about me and I love it!" to "I hate being known for my personality and I hate it." back and forth through the whole thing. She kept referring to her past self about how much she loved fashion and looks, but stopped after a comment from her mother. This whole book was about if looks mattered or not. In the end, it was a floppy answer and an unsatisfactory one. Although, the whole theme was cliche for me.
I had tweeted about how I would write this review, stating that would be hard considering I didn't like it. However, it was actually fun to rant. I thought I would have nothing to say, but once I started going, I couldn't stop. I do have to point out again that this is a witty book. From the reviews on Goodreads, it seems like I'm in the minority character-wise. You might have no problem with everything I mentioned and not even feel the same way when you read it.
Verdict: Witty, but characters were too annoying to think about anything else.
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