by Summer Lane

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a signed copy of this book!

Lexi has a controlling mother who’s obsessed with beauty pageants, her sister is a brat, her dad is distant, and Lexi herself is in a rut. She doesn’t think much about herself, and she’s consigned herself to live apart from the “Beautiful Ones” at school, deliberately putting no effort into her appearance to defy the stereotype of the standards of teen beauty. But when she and her best friend Benny make a bet, she gets glammed up for one week at school. Things kind of go off the rails from that point onward.

The most noticeable thing about this book was its simplicity: the story and characters are simple enough that you can get to know them quickly and go right into the book without having to think too hard. I really liked that. Lexi does, truthfully, remind me of my high school self (I’m not ashamed to say it, people!), which is probably why I found this book so funny. There were a few things that Lexi did that frustrated me (her obsession with Logan was driving me crazy!), but that’s what characters do, right? The only criticism I have is about Mac, the seven year-old sister; her dialogue was way beyond her years.

The whole pageant thing was entertaining to me, because I’m going to be honest here: I once tried watching an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras and literally turned it off after four minutes. Four! It was just…terrifying. Seriously, you haven’t seen scary until you’ve seen a toddler wearing a bikini. It’s just wrong on so many levels. I think Elizabeth Eulberg wrote a fun, witty novel about staying true to yourself and not conforming to the world’s standards of beauty.

Just be YOU! 🙂

To enter to win a signed copy of Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality, simply email KRL at life@kingsriverlife[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Revenge”, or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen March 30, 2013. U.S. residents only.

Summer Lane is a freelance writer with thousands of published articles on a variety of topics. She’s also a published novelist, publicist, book reviewer and cat lover. Her book, Snappy Social Networking, is available now! You can contact Summer for reviews or writing on her blog.