I am trying to review books for #Reviewathon and I am going back through my list to see if I have missed any. I cannot believe I never posted my review on Revenge of the Girl With a Great Personality - this is one of my all time favorite Elizabeth Eulberg books(I love them all really)...

Elizabeth Eulberg has a unique "comedic" aspect to her writing that I find very refreshing. - she understand us introverts without making us super sassy with the perfect comeback...every time.

I'm currently trying to get through some of the books I got from Netgalley.

I just read another one of Elizabeth Eulberg's books (Better Off Friends) and I wasn't a big fan of it. I read this one to see how another one of her books would be and I'm sorry to say, I didn't really like this one either.

As with Better Off Friends, I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's aimed towards young teens. I've read plenty of YA and even middle grade that I enjoyed much more than this.

I found myself very frustrated with just about every character in this one. Sorry to say this just wasn't my thing.

https://marjoleinreads.blogspot.nl/2014/02/better-off-friends-by-elizabeth-eulberg.html

This was a great quick read. Lexi is spunky and a fun character to watch develop.

I have most of Elizabeth Eulberg's books, but this is the first one that I've read. I was looking forward to this book, but it didn't turn out to be quite what I was expecting.

Since her little sister Mackenzie came along, Lexi's life has revolved around beauty pageants. Her mom makes sure that Mac has whatever she needs to compete and spends countless hours planning and competing in pageants, leaving things with Lexi to fall by the wayside. Still, Lexi has great friends, Benny and Cam, and as so many have told her, a "great personality." But Lexi wants more. She wants to be someone who could capture the attention of a guy like Logan, pageant-queen Alyssa's boyfriend. When she makes a deal with Benny to start wearing makeup and dressing up, she thinks nothing will happen. Was she ever wrong. Before she knows it, Lexi has to decide which is more important - having a great appearance or truly having a great personality?

When I started this book, I was hoping for some Toddlers-and-Tiaras-esque laughs and a girl who broke stereotypes by not being beauty pageant material and still ending up with the guy she wanted. Instead I found myself annoyed with both Lexi and the "pretty girl who doesn't know she's pretty" stereotype early in the book. I'm not sure if this was a case of "wrong book, wrong time," or if I just couldn't connect to Lexi the way I wanted to. Either way, I spent most of the book feeling like there was a disconnect, and by the time that I began to care about the characters, the book was almost over. In addition, one character really disappointed me at the end, and it left me with an unsettled feeling. Many things about this book may have been realistic, but in the end I mostly wished they weren't. There was a good message there, but I felt like it got somewhat lost in the story.

That being said, there are some good things about this book, as well as events and emotions that give it depth. Lexi does not always agree or get along with her mother, and things come to a head with them more than once. She misses her dad, and though she loves her friends, at sixteen sometimes she still needed a parent who would care for her. It was easy to sympathize with Lexi in those moments as she dealt with unfair situations. Lexi was a good person when it counted, which I appreciated. There were also some lighter moments to the book, including learning about flippers and watching Lexi apply mascara for the first time. Even still, I just couldn't get into the book the way I wanted to.

I still plan to read Elizabeth Eulberg's other books, and I know other people enjoyed this book more than I did. See reviews at these blogs:

A Blog About Nothing
Ex Libris