The It Girl (It Girl #1)
Grade 9 Up-Jenny Humphrey, kicked out of Constance Ballard prep school for being a bad influence, decides she'll do anything to become one of the popular girls at Waverly Academy. Like the author's Gossip Girls series, the story is full of underage drinking, smoking, foul language, snarkiness, and label dropping. Sleeping around is casually accepted. Jenny rooms with two almost interchangeable big names on campus: Brett, who falls for the uber-rich newbie teacher, and Callie, who manipulates both Jenny and her boyfriend, Easy. The two girls are barely speaking because each one blames the other for their friend Tinsley's expulsion. Fearing that she will also be kicked out, Callie talks vulnerable Jenny into taking the blame when Easy gets caught nearly naked in their room. But Jenny is as attracted to Easy as he is to her. The school's dirty little secret is that you can get away with almost anything as long as you are from a legacy family of donors, which may explain why Tinsley is being reinstated at the books' end-just in time for a sequel. Jenny's references to Old and New Jenny are more confusing than illuminating as is the starry-eyed innocence that uncharacteristically peeks out of her persona at convenient times. Pass on this paean to possessions, perkiness, and ample breasts for something more substantial, unless you have insatiable Gossip Girl fans.-Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.