Zoey Dean

I was about 1/4 of the way through this when I realized it was a YA book, which I usually don't read. Then my first reaction was to clutch my pearls and fan myself, because I can't believe that THIS is a Young Adult book. Back in my day, when we had to walk 5 miles to school uphill both ways, you had to steal your mother's paperbacks to read smutty sex stuff. It was surely frowned upon to write books FOR teens that were all about smutty sex. Alas, times have changed.

To be fair, there wasn't really a lot of detail and the heroine of the piece is a beautiful, brainy virgin. But the book was about spoiled, wealthy Beverly Hills kids who do nothing but abuse substances and randomly hump each other. It's like a Jackie Collins novel with younger people and better dialogue - fun, but complete trash. So of course I enjoyed it, but if I had a teenage daughter I wouldn‰ÃƒÂ›Ã‚ªt be suggesting that she read it.… (mer)

Gist of the story: Recent Yale graduate Megan Smith comes to Manhattan with big plans for a career in journalism and even bigger student loan debt: $75,000. When she flails at her trashy tabloid job, she's given an escape hatch: tutor seventeen-year-old identical twins Rose and Sage Baker--yes, the infamous Baker heiresses of Palm Beach, Florida, best known for their massive fortunes and their penchant for drunkenly flashing the paparazzi -- and get their SAT scores up enough to get into Duke. Impossible job -- yes. But if she succeeds, her student debts are history. Unfortunately for Megan, the Baker twins aren't about to curtail their busy social schedules for basic algebra. And they certainly aren't thrilled to have to sit down for a study session with dowdy Megan. Megan quickly discovers that if she's going to get her money, she'll have to learn her Pucci from her Prada. And if she can look the part, maybe, just maybe, she can teach the girls something along the way.

Not badly written, but could not be more cliche. Girl struggles, gets a bunch of whirlwind and fabulous help, screws it all up by trying to be someone she's not, world comes crashing down, discovers her true self and gets friends and hot new boyfriend in the end.

I think I'm officially done with chick-lit. There's just nothing out there that's any good or any different.

It's okay. It's not the best, however, it is one of the better written chick-lit books out there. The idea - tutoring twin girls who make Paris Hilton, Nicole Richey, Lindsay Lohan, AND Britney Spears look like saintly nuns - is different, but the story isn't. It was like a more cheerful happier ending version of "The Nanny Diaries", which I don't find to be chick-lit.

Give it a whirl if you need something light, but don't buy it, check it out from your library. This is the author's first adult novel. *yawn*… (mer)