Jessica Brody is the author of THE KARMA CLUB, MY LIFE UNDECIDED and the forthcoming UNREMEMBERED trilogy, as well as two novels for adults. She splits her time between California and Colorado.
"[has] surprising charm." --School Library
Journal..".entertaining." --VOYA..".sure to be enjoyed by teens..."
--Kirkus..".opulent and fast-paced..." --Publishers Weekly." . .
interesting twists . . ." --Booklist
[has] surprising charm. School Library Journal ...entertaining.
VOYA ...sure to be enjoyed by teens Kirkus opulent and
fast-paced... Publishers Weekly . . . interesting twists . . .
Booklist"
[has] surprising charm. "School Library Journal" ...entertaining.
"VOYA" ...sure to be enjoyed by teens "Kirkus" opulent and
fast-paced... "Publishers Weekly" . . . interesting twists . . .
"Booklist""
Gr 7 Up-Lexington Larabee has grown up getting everything she wants without lifting a finger. Then, she crashes her brand-new Mercedes convertible into a convenience store after a night of partying hard and everything changes. Her distant billionaire father decides to withhold the trust fund she's been counting on receiving on her 18th birthday until she has completed 52 menial jobs (cleaning houses, filling tacos, washing dishes, etc.), one each week for the next year. As if that isn't humiliating enough, he doesn't even administer this punishment himself. Instead, he appoints his college intern, Luke, to be Lexi's babysitter. He drives her to and from her jobs and assesses her progress. While the plot is predictable with the requisite romance and happy ending, the story has surprising charm. Lexi's growth is believable-as believable as it can be within the confines of the premise, anyway-and readers see the specific lessons she learns as she works. For example, after a week as a maid, she realizes that "no one notices the help," a lesson that she uses later in the book during a nail-biting undertaking of corporate espionage to help her father's company. Brody also delivers an occasional turn of phrase (Lexi describes her sleeping dog as "a perfect little doughnut of fur") that makes this book perhaps not a standout, but at least a better example of the bad-girl-turned-good narrative.-Gretchen Kolderup, New Canaan Library, CT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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