♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress by Tina Ferraro

There are some books that make you want to rip your roots out of your head (example), and then there are some that are so easy and breezy to read/comprehend, that you can't keep your hands off it. Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress by Tina Ferraro was a book of the latter description. There's nothing that I like better in a book, than the style it portrays, of "beach read":

Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
Tina Ferraro

Page Count: 240
Release Date: 13 March, 2007
Publisher: Delacorte (Random House)
Source: Received a copy as a gift from the author, with no expectations of a review, let alone a positive one (thank you, Tina!!!)

Sophomore year, Nicolette Antonovich was dumped two days before prom by the hottest guy at school. As a result, she became the proud owner of one unworn, perfectly magical pink vintage dress. But Nic is determined to put that night behind her for good. She's a junior now— older, wiser, and completely overwhelmed by a new set of problems: (1) The bank's ready to foreclose on her childhood home. (2) Her father's too busy with his "replacement" daughter to care. (3) Her best friend's brother is an eternal thorn in her side. (4) Her best friend isn't exactly the rose attached to that thorn. (5) Rumors are flying around school that could get her kicked off the volleyball team, which would (6) ruin all chances of a college scholarship. (7) She still likes the boy who dumped her in the first place. (8) And what in the world do you do with an unworn prom dress, anyway? Strangely, it's getting to the bottom of this last dilemma that just might hold the answer to all Nic's problems.

Tina Ferraro makes reading so fun. Not only was the plot lively and enjoyable, but her style is just so... me. I felt like I was Nic, I felt like I could apply to all the concerns she had.

Every girl has gotten her heart b r o k e n by a guy she's smitten with. Every girl has experienced unrequited love within the high school hierarchy, because there's always that one boy she's in love with, that's put his heart in another girl's hands. Well, that's Nic.

See, she gets asked to prom by the boy of her dreams, but, nightmare of all nightmares: the night of, his out-of-town girlfriend is suddenly so in-town, and she gets stood up. The horror!

But maybe getting stood up by a guy who you've always liked, but never really gotten to know, isn't so bad after all. Maybe it'll give you freedom to do other things, like practice for the volleyball team, or maybe, just maybe, you'll have room to realize that your crush was superficial, and that there's someone else out there, who'll be good to you like they really mean it. And you never know—there just might be a better use for that unworn prom dress (still hanging in your closet), that will make skipping prom all the more worthwhile, that you would never have imagined.

With the quirky and intriguing voice of a distressed high school student that every girl has been, Tina Ferraro creates a fast-paced, heartwarming page-turner that teaches the value of the prettier things in life, and the value of a really nice prom dress too.

Radical Rating: 8 hearts: An engaging read; highly recommended. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

You could tell I felt like really messing around with colors today...and evidently, the review/description colors are inverted. Might keep it this way. Have a marvelous rest of the week!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: I So Don't Do Makeup by Barrie Summy

Didn't get this one cheap, but free! It's not an actual copy, and just an Advanced Reading Copy, but I was fortunate enough to snag one from RandomHouse and review it. I outgrew middle age novels when I was about twelve, but I still like to read them for variety. Here's I So Don't Do Makeup by Barrie Summy: 

I So Don't Do Makeup (I So Don't Do Mysteries #3)
Barrie Summy

Page Count: 288
Release Date: 11 May, 2010
Publisher: Delacorte Press (Random House)
Source: Complimentary ARC provided by RandomBuzzers (publisher) in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!)

No one messes with Sherry's mascara! A little cherry lip gloss never hurt anybody, right? That's what I thought until my sleepover. My friends went to bed all happy and moisturized... and woke up with serious skin issues! Luckily, I happen to be pretty good at solving mysteries. Because now I'm skin deep in one.

Someone's tampering with the makeup at the mall kiosk where Amber works, and she needs my help. I'm kind of a crime-solving celebrity. My mom is a ghost (really!), and together we've worked on some important cases.

But I'm tackling this mystery by myself. I'm even going undercover—without makeup—to solve it. That's right, if I'm going to crack this case, I'll have to say... I so don't do makeup.

I really didn't expect to like this book. Just by looking at the cover, you think that it's "just another chick-lit for preteenage wannabees" and then by reading the title, that thought is confirmed. The protagonist, Sherry, considers herself a sleuth (her name's short for Sherlock). In this book's case, she is playing detective to catch the horrible person who's been tainting the makeup at her favorite mall kiosk. I hadn't realized that this book was third in a series of Sherry's adventures. However, I read it fine without reading the first two books, so it makes a great stand-alone novel.

Most of the plot, as you can expect, was all happy-go-lucky. Sherry is thirteen, has a boyfriend, an extensive vocabulary, and an oddly quick thinking process. Yet, she's never worn makeup (before her incidental sleepover), loves glitter, and hates her stepmother. Is she mature, or immature for her age? I'm not quite sure. Also, there are some supernatural elements involved: her mom, who passed away, comes to visit her as a ghost, and Sherry always looks forward to meeting up with her. 

The book is very fast-paced and fairly entertaining. I went through it in about three hours. Nothing fancy to particularly stick in my mind (heck, I'm already forgetting some of it... but in my defense, it's been a few months since I've read it), and it definitely is sort of painful to read at times (everything in Sherry's life is so disgustingly perfect, which bothered me a bit). All the events are things that would never happen in real life because real life never works that accurately. There are almost no surprises in the story, and when there is the teensiest trouble (the face mask caused rashes!), someone always comes to the rescue immediately (of course her stepmom is a health freak who just has soothing cream in her medicine cabinet. Really?). And obviously, the ghost mother thing. Note to author: if you're going to incorporate a ghost in the story, at least make it meaningful and realistic! Sherry's ghost mom only took away from the action!

All in all, it wasn't bad. But it's not something that'll haunt/affect me for the rest of my life either.

Radical Rating:  7 hearts: Not without flaws, but overall enjoyable. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Hope you enjoyed the review!