Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality – Elizabeth Eulberg

Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality – Elizabeth EulbergTitle: Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg
Publishing Info: March 1, 2013 by Scholastic Inc.
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: April 3, 2013
Related Posts: Better Off Friends, The Lonely Hearts Club

    Don't mess with a girl with a great personality!
    Everybody loves Lexi. She's popular, smart, funny...but she's never been one of those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup).
    Lexi's sick of it. She's sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She's sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She's sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she's sick of having all her family's money wasted on a phony pursuit of perfection.
    The time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren't going to know what hit them. Because Lexi's going to play the beauty game - and she's in it to win it.

bookreview1

REVENGE OF THE GIRL WITH THE GREAT PERSONALITY (henceforth known as “REVENGE” because WOW that’s a mouthful) was one of those books that I deem “fun” due to Lexi’s titular great personality, but don’t be fooled by the sass and cleverness — REVENGE also has a lot of big issues surrounding Lexi’s family and friends.

I love the plot of the girl with the great personality. I mean, haven’t we all been there? I know this book hit a personal note for me because I spent most of high school being the third/fifth/seventh wheel, the last person asked to dances (if I even got asked), and that girl sitting on the couch while my friends flirted with boys. There wasn’t anything wrong with me — I was just the girl with the great personality, not the girl the boys wanted to flirt with or date or ask to dances. I happened to have friends who were gorgeous or flirtatious or rebellious so they got all the attention and I always felt like there MUST be something wrong with me… It was a great story to identify with for me and I’m sure many other girls can relate! When Lexi goes through her makeover phase, she does start to get attention from the boys, but then she has to figure out A) if that’s the only reason she’s getting attention and B) is it worth it to totally change herself just to be noticed. She goes through a lot of personal changes throughout the course of this book and I loved how Eulberg brought us through that process.

I think the thing that I loved most about this book — in the most terrible way possible — was how awful Lexi’s mom was. A big part of this book is Lexi’s sister Mackenzie’s involvement in beauty pageants and their mother being the stereotypical “pageant mom”. Right off the bat we find out that all of the money Lexi’s mom makes goes into pageants — even over things like electric bills at times — so Lexi is forced into being the responsible one as far as money goes. That’s such a tough spot to put a teenager in and all of those interactions with Lexi and her mom… Gosh, my heart just broke seeing Lexi having to act like a parent to her family and watching her many failed attempts to get through to her mother that there are WAY more important things than pageants.

I also need to say that I LOVE that Elizabeth Eulberg let this story be about Lexi and Lexi alone. There were so many secondary characters who could have had runaway story lines (crazy pageant mom, parents’ divorce, fight with best friend Cam, gay best friend Benny & his first real romance, Logan & Alyssa romance, Mackenzie participating in pageants) but none of them went off on their own tangents. All of these characters did have their own issues going on, but they were all in the story to support Lexi and help tell her tale and I really loved that. I feel like I’ve read a few books recently where we get a little TOO into secondary characters and start to lose focus of the main character so it was nice to read REVENGE with the sole focus of Lexi and how all of these invents involving the people around her were affecting her life.

REVENGE was a great book that combined romance and big life issues in a very realistic way. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who’s felt like “The Girl with the Great Personality” at any point in their life!

view_from_goodreads1

revenge gr updates character_breakdown1

Lexi: Lexi was a great character for me to identify with. Obviously I’ve felt like “that girl” who is perfectly normal but somehow never the one guys are attracted to (honestly… I think it’s just high school boys haha – they always want the obvious). She goes through some big life changes and her personality shines in this book. I really like that she discovers everything herself and it felt really realistic for me. You know your friends can tell you something a million times but until YOU realize it for yourself, it doesn’t make a difference and that’s what Lexi went through. Loved it.
Logan: I like that Logan was left a likable guy for most of the book. He’s Lexi’s big crush BUT he has the gorgeous girlfriend Alyssa. HMMM. I smell trouble. I like that he didn’t come across as jerky though so it was still up in the air whether I really wanted Lexi to be with him or not!
Taylor: Okay, I LOVED Taylor. He would be the one that gets interested in Lexi close to the beginning of the story and we readers have the question, “Is it because of Lexi or because of her new makeover?” Regardless, I thought he seemed pretty genuine, and of course Elizabeth Eulberg throws this little gem at me… I mean, seriously. She was asking for it!

addiction_factor1Read it!

Elizabeth Eulberg’s books are just SO much fun. This was a quick and really great read for me. I appreciated so much about it!

book_recommendations1BOOKS LIKE REVENGE OF THE GIRL WITH THE GREAT PERSONALITY

     Paper Valentine      Going Vintage

Hi, I'm Brittany!
Hi, I'm Brittany!

I'm an avid reader, candle-maker, and audiobook lover! Here you'll find book reviews, fun blog posts, and my other loves of photography & craft beer!

Recently Read

Dead Moon
The Fold
14
Instant Karma
American Girl
The Recovery Agent
The Harbor
One of Us Is Dead
The Last Thing He Told Me
Hook, Line, and Sinker
It Happened One Summer
The Good Lie


Brittany S.’s favorite books »

13 thoughts on “Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality – Elizabeth Eulberg

  1. Christianna

    I didn’t really know much about this book before, but it sounds delightful! I have to admit that I too was the girl with the great personality in highschool so I can relate to all of the things that you said in your review, which was wonderful BTW!

    Reply
  2. Rachel

    I really liked your review! I feel like I got to know you a little bit more. It’s awesome that you connected with Lexi so well. I absolutely love when that happens. I’m interested in so many different aspects of this book. The pageant element has me really excited because that’s not in YA very often. And the relationship between Lexi/her mom is also something I’m interested in because I like atypical family relationships. Also, Lexi’s whole transformation/self-discovery sounds really neat and from your review it sounds like it was done well. And Taylor! I want to meet him 😀

    Reply
  3. Quinn @ Quinn's Book Nook

    I was totally that girl, too. The third wheel. But I had a hard time with Revenge. I enjoyed it enough, but I didn’t love it. Maybe because I was expecting something else. I’m not sure.

    I was really not a fan of the part at the end when Lexi dresses up like a beauty contestant. Something about that felt so off to me.

    But I did still like this book, I just wasn’t in love. I’m really glad you liked it.

    Reply
  4. Alexa Y.

    This book was super cute (except that I was still so angry with Lexi’s mom by the end of it)! I liked Lexi a lot, and I felt like I could totally relate to her situation. Even though she only tries out one makeover, I think it was reminiscent of when we were teens and struggling to figure out who we were and who we wanted to be. Elizabeth also manages to sprinkle the book with funny moments, which was wonderful!

    Reply
    1. Brittany Post author

      Oh my gosh, I was SOOOOO mad at Lexi’s mom. That was horrible and I felt so sad for Lexi!
      That’s so true. We all kind of tried to reinvent ourselves as teens. Stupid high school and all its politics haha.
      I’m so glad she kept funny moments in with the serious. I thought it was a great mix!

      Reply
  5. Candice

    Haha! One of my bonus points for this book was Tim Riggins… because yeah, that’s who I kept picturing Taylor Riggins as ! Glad you liked this one so much; it’s funny how many people have reviewed it and said nearly the exact same thing – that they were once a girl with a great personality. I guess we’ve all been there!

    Reply
    1. Brittany Post author

      Hahaha I love that we both did that! Ohhhh Tim Riggins. How could you not?
      True – I think that’s why it’s so relatable. We’ve all been “that girl”!

      Reply
    1. Brittany Post author

      Haha I’m glad I’m not the only one who does that 🙂
      It was a fun book! I hope you enjoy it!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: