She drags Charlotte to the pageant as a good luck charm, but the winning plan quickly goes awry when Ginny has a terrible, face-altering allergic reaction the night before the pageant, and Charlotte suddenly finds herself in a switcheroo the twins haven’t successfully pulled off in decades.
Woefully unprepared for the glittery world of hair extensions, false eyelashes, and push-up bras, Charlotte is mortified at every unstable step in her sky-high stilettos. But as she discovers there’s more to her fellow contestants than just wanting a sparkly crown, Charlotte realizes she has a whole new motivation for winning. (Pub Date: Dec 04, 2018)
Ah, this was fun!
I'd rate it 3.5, though.
Charlotte has a twin, a beautiful and popular twin who's broken up her most recent relationship when Charlotte overheard the guy confess he was just waiting to do the switch. Ginny is so different from her, she's in every pageant and usually goes far. That's what's so tragical about her getting her face all blotched after an allergic crisis. In the end, Charlotte needs to step up and become Ginny for a few days in other to make sure her sister classifies for the final round of this last-chance pageant.
I was very into this plot and requested to read the ARC the same second but then I found out I had read a previous work from the same author and wasn't a big fan of it. So maybe my expectations weren't the highest. And yet, it proved everyone deserves second chances. This was a very entertaining pleasure read.
There is a bit of Miss Congeniality inspiration but it's very mild. There's no crime being investigated and neither is Charlotte from the police. But I liked living for a bit in the backstage of a beauty pageant, I even wished there were more scenes like that even though the book is full of them.
The romance is more of a subplot, and it's also drunk from elsewhere waters—Pride and Prejudice, in this case. I really like the not-knowing-each-other's-real-identities trope and wish there was more of the couple, but I also think there was a high chance the book would become just like all other romances. So let's say the writer knew the ideal dose not to spoil it all but still leave us wanting. And kudos to him, I approve his reactions to everything going one there.
This book doesn't go too deep and it's no innovation of any kind, but neither does it sell itself like that. It definitely fulfills what it was made to and shouldn't disappoint. It could have been funnier, it could have been less forgettable, but it was a nice read.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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