Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg

Title: Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality 
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
ISBN: 9780545476997
Publisher: Scholastic
Released: March 1, 2013
Page #: 261
Source: ARC from the publisher

Summary:
"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, 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."
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First Lines:

"Applying butt glue to my sister's backside is, without question, not the first way I'd choose to spend a weekend.
However, getting up close and personal is just one of the many glamorous tasks that are involved in being on Team Mackenzie."
Page 1
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Review:

I laughed. I cried. I swooned. No, seriously. This was really fun - it had a little bit of everything that makes an awesome realistic fiction book for teens. Was it a little predictable? Maybe. But it was fun and definitely worth the read. Plus, how could you pass up a book with a title as awesome as this one?!

So, Lexi's sister is a pageant child. All of their time, money, and effort goes to the pageant - including some of the money Lexi is saving up. They never have enough. She has fabulous friends and wants her life to change, desperately. She's tired of being overlooked by her family and crush... so she makes a bet with one of her best friends. She will start dressing nicely if he will talk to his crush. It works a little too well and things start spiraling.

Lexi was an awesome main character. She has just the right amount of sass and insecurity to really fall in love with her. Her family, on the other hand, needs some work. Only her friends see her for how awesome she is. I really wasn't expecting for her to be as emotionally complex as she ended up being. Plus, she has the whole boy drama that we all know and love. It takes quite the party to help her figure out who is best for her.

There is something so fascinating about pageants. I mean, there are obviously a lot of people who are - considering all the tv shows and such. But I loved getting the whole thing from the perspective of a sister who couldn't care less about the whole thing. This book has a few rah-rah feminist moments that are totally valid. Things like, do pageants really help self esteem... and that sort of thing. So it was interesting to sort of delve into that world. Especially when you're talking about children.

As usual, I'm not going to tell you what happens in the end. In fact, there's something a little shocking that happens in Lexi's family. I may have been a little emotional while reading this book to begin with, but I honestly teared up. The incident is well written and you feel like the author is handling the whole thing with care. I really appreciated that.

See? So this one is more than chick lit. A little less fluffy. But it really does have some great characters and you will find yourself rooting for them all to make good choices. I will definitely recommend this book to my realistic fiction lovers. It's a fast, fun read that will totally pull you in. I haven't read anything by this author before, but I might need to go find the rest of her stuff.
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