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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
These sort of books are like my guilty pleasure. They're so fun and such a fast read and I just love these cute romance stories.
Originally posted at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.
Why did I want to read Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg? The title was a huge motivating factor. Then I found out beauty pageants were involved too and couldn't resit. It's a good book, though not entirely what I expected it to be and I was a little disappointed as a result.
Lexi is enslaved to her mother's obsession with making Mackenzie the next great pageant queen. Lexi sews for the pageants and works at a store in the mall so that she can have money to pay for her own food and the summer program she desperately wants to attend. All of the family's money goes to the pageants and there is never enough of it. Lexi's is tired of it all, but feels there is nothing she can do. Her startling transformation from average to gorgeous begins as a dare from her best friend Benny. If she puts on make-up, he will talk to the boy he likes. It escalates from there until Lexi is causing mouths to drop and both she and Benny have boyfriends. Only the boyfriend Lexi has isn't the one she truly wanted. I really liked how Eulberg used Lexi's transformation to connect high school and the pageant world. Lexi is a character you will sympathize with and want to protect even as you want to occasionally smack her upside the head. Mostly you will want to cheer her on though. She has a couple of truly cheer worthy moments in the book for sure. For a girl who has it pretty rough she is remarkably level headed and proactive. I admire this about her. She has two best friends, Benny and Cam, who are wonderful and supportive. I liked how there was no big friend drama in this book. The friendship between the three of them is strong and I enjoyed seeing how they worked through their issues. The boy drama I could have done without as much of. I feel like a smart girl like Lexi could have kept that situation from becoming what it did. The target audience will probably not mind though and relate.
I expected this book to be more humorous and lighter in tone than it was. It can't be though because Lexi's family has some serious issues. Her mother is a monster. And I'm not exaggerating. She has the potential to not be one but she has some serious issues and therapy is clearly very much needed. Her father's absence from the scene doesn't make him much better. The end of the novel is more than a little unresolved, but there is no way you could tie this story in to a neat package without undermining everything that happened and so I like this about it. I like that Lexi's future is open to the imagination. Things are resolved enough, just not all the way.
The book is more serious than its title and cover may lead a person to believe. It is a good read and one that will be thoroughly enjoyed by many-so long as they know what sort of story they're getting.
I read an e-galley of this received from the publisher via NetGalley. It will be available for purchase on March 1, 2013.
Why did I want to read Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg? The title was a huge motivating factor. Then I found out beauty pageants were involved too and couldn't resit. It's a good book, though not entirely what I expected it to be and I was a little disappointed as a result.
Lexi is enslaved to her mother's obsession with making Mackenzie the next great pageant queen. Lexi sews for the pageants and works at a store in the mall so that she can have money to pay for her own food and the summer program she desperately wants to attend. All of the family's money goes to the pageants and there is never enough of it. Lexi's is tired of it all, but feels there is nothing she can do. Her startling transformation from average to gorgeous begins as a dare from her best friend Benny. If she puts on make-up, he will talk to the boy he likes. It escalates from there until Lexi is causing mouths to drop and both she and Benny have boyfriends. Only the boyfriend Lexi has isn't the one she truly wanted. I really liked how Eulberg used Lexi's transformation to connect high school and the pageant world. Lexi is a character you will sympathize with and want to protect even as you want to occasionally smack her upside the head. Mostly you will want to cheer her on though. She has a couple of truly cheer worthy moments in the book for sure. For a girl who has it pretty rough she is remarkably level headed and proactive. I admire this about her. She has two best friends, Benny and Cam, who are wonderful and supportive. I liked how there was no big friend drama in this book. The friendship between the three of them is strong and I enjoyed seeing how they worked through their issues. The boy drama I could have done without as much of. I feel like a smart girl like Lexi could have kept that situation from becoming what it did. The target audience will probably not mind though and relate.
I expected this book to be more humorous and lighter in tone than it was. It can't be though because Lexi's family has some serious issues. Her mother is a monster. And I'm not exaggerating. She has the potential to not be one but she has some serious issues and therapy is clearly very much needed. Her father's absence from the scene doesn't make him much better. The end of the novel is more than a little unresolved, but there is no way you could tie this story in to a neat package without undermining everything that happened and so I like this about it. I like that Lexi's future is open to the imagination. Things are resolved enough, just not all the way.
The book is more serious than its title and cover may lead a person to believe. It is a good read and one that will be thoroughly enjoyed by many-so long as they know what sort of story they're getting.
I read an e-galley of this received from the publisher via NetGalley. It will be available for purchase on March 1, 2013.
This was not my favorite. I loved the main character growing and becoming more of her own person but I didnt like the ending.
i really liked this book. it was funny and witty and the main character reminded me of myself a little. there was just a couple things at the end that annoyed me enough to take away one star.
This book was a little too underdeveloped for my taste. The writing was mediocre, the characters were shallowly presented, and the plot felt way too forced. All in all it seemed like a literary "after school special."
The one thing that kept this book interesting was the mother's obsession with pageant life. The fact that her relationship with her daughters wasn't magically fixed at the end felt real and true to life, so kudos to the author for that. Sadly, everything else was just too neatly wrapped up.
The one thing that kept this book interesting was the mother's obsession with pageant life. The fact that her relationship with her daughters wasn't magically fixed at the end felt real and true to life, so kudos to the author for that. Sadly, everything else was just too neatly wrapped up.
Fun, light with good characters. Felt a bit like Mean Girls if Lindsey Lohan hadn't been pretty in the first place. I wanted it to be longer actually, it flew by!
Great title for a book. The actual story left a lot to be desired. Predictable plot, one-dimensional characters, sappy ending. Felt like a hallmark movie in a book, just not my thing.
This was a cute, witty, slightly stereotypical chick (flick) read. It was adorable and at times almost heart-wrenching. Considering that I picked this up while processing books in my school library, it was everything that I was expecting from picking a book while half dead (I mean asleep). If you liked the movie Mean Girls this is a great book for you.
I hate to say it but Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality is my least favorite of Elizabeth Eulberg’s books. All of her previous books have ended up on my favorites list and I just can’t say the same for this one. While I still enjoyed it, I find myself forgetting about it already.
Lexi was my biggest problem. She had absolutely no confidence in herself. She thought that the only way she could interact with guys was if she cracked jokes and acted like she didn’t care about anything. She considered herself ugly just because she didn’t wear a ton of makeup or dress super girly. I get that living in the pageant world made her feel bad about herself but it really bothers me when girls act like makeup and clothes are the only things that could make someone pretty. I wanted to slap Lexi so many times because she was just so oblivious! Also, her friends got on my nerves a bit too. One of them only added to her thoughts that makeup and clothes are all that matter and the other one got angry about nothing in particular and acted kind of bitchy. They weren’t horrible, by any means, but they weren’t nearly as awesome as the friends in Elizabeth Eulberg’s previous books.
The story itself was a little shallow but it was entertaining. Lexi decides to transform herself so that guys will finally start to notice her. Little does she know how well it will actually work. One day as her new self and guys are falling all over her and Lexi’s life completely changes. It was a little unrealistic but it made for a pretty fun story.
Oh, also, I have to mention Lexi’s family and how bad they were! Oh my gosh I would have become an emancipated minor if I had her mother. She is probably one of the worst moms I have ever read about, ever. She had two daughters but she really only seemed to care about one and it wasn’t Lexi. Every thought revolved around pageants even though they had no money for them. There’s one point in the book where I really probably would have murdered her if she had been my mom. And Lexi’s little sister came across as this huge spoiled brat for most of the book but by the end I did like her.
One other flaw I had with Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality was the ending. Things seemed very unresolved and I was left wondering what happened. The ending worked but it’s not what I wanted at all. It just bothers me when things are left hanging.
Overall, if you’re a fan of Elizabeth Eulberg, check out Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality. However, if you’ve never read any of her other books, I’d recommend starting with one of them rather than this one.
Lexi was my biggest problem. She had absolutely no confidence in herself. She thought that the only way she could interact with guys was if she cracked jokes and acted like she didn’t care about anything. She considered herself ugly just because she didn’t wear a ton of makeup or dress super girly. I get that living in the pageant world made her feel bad about herself but it really bothers me when girls act like makeup and clothes are the only things that could make someone pretty. I wanted to slap Lexi so many times because she was just so oblivious! Also, her friends got on my nerves a bit too. One of them only added to her thoughts that makeup and clothes are all that matter and the other one got angry about nothing in particular and acted kind of bitchy. They weren’t horrible, by any means, but they weren’t nearly as awesome as the friends in Elizabeth Eulberg’s previous books.
The story itself was a little shallow but it was entertaining. Lexi decides to transform herself so that guys will finally start to notice her. Little does she know how well it will actually work. One day as her new self and guys are falling all over her and Lexi’s life completely changes. It was a little unrealistic but it made for a pretty fun story.
Oh, also, I have to mention Lexi’s family and how bad they were! Oh my gosh I would have become an emancipated minor if I had her mother. She is probably one of the worst moms I have ever read about, ever. She had two daughters but she really only seemed to care about one and it wasn’t Lexi. Every thought revolved around pageants even though they had no money for them. There’s one point in the book where I really probably would have murdered her if she had been my mom. And Lexi’s little sister came across as this huge spoiled brat for most of the book but by the end I did like her.
One other flaw I had with Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality was the ending. Things seemed very unresolved and I was left wondering what happened. The ending worked but it’s not what I wanted at all. It just bothers me when things are left hanging.
Overall, if you’re a fan of Elizabeth Eulberg, check out Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality. However, if you’ve never read any of her other books, I’d recommend starting with one of them rather than this one.