Geek Charming - by Robin Palmer

This was a fun take on the Frog Prince fairy tale. Dylan is a princess. She's a self-centered popular person who passes judgment on the whole student class at Castle Heights High. She has a popular jock boyfriend and a little entourage who seem to bend to her selfish whims, including trying to fish out her expensive, stylish purse that she drops into the fountain at the mall. Insert Josh, who is a film geek with asthma, who makes a deal with Dylan. He will get her purse out of the fountain if she agrees to being the subject of a documentary on popular people that he will use for his entrance project for Film School.

Dylan agrees, but shortly after, reneges on the deal, until Josh speaks to her father. What follows is Josh and his friends filming Dylan and her friends a couple of times a week. At first they just capture how horrible popular people can be, especially Dylan, but Josh quickly starts to see the insecurities and worries she has, just like everyday people, and that they are not so bad, after all. Dylan and friends also begin to realize that geeks aren't all that bad, either.

Dylan eventually gives Josh a makeover that raises his status at school, even while staying true to himself. Dylan loses her boyfriend and popular friends, and things blow up when Dylan sees the wrong version of the documentary. Everything works out in the end with a realistic and feel good ending.

I didn't actually like either Dylan or Josh at the beginning, and wasn't sure if I'd like the book. But it quickly won me over with the character development and fun plot. I was rooting for both characters by mid-book, and was very satisfied in the end.

Fun chic-lit!

Stolen - by Vivian Vande Velde

As with most of Vande Velde's books I've read so far, this was a fun, quick read with a neat little twist at the end.

The same day that the local witch has had her cottage burned down for stealing another child, twelve-year-old Isabelle (is that really her name?) wakes up running through the forest and quickly finds herself chased up a tree by dogs. She doesn't remember anything before the running. Not her name, her family, where she's from, or why she was running. She is taken in by a kind family in the village of Thornstowe to help her recover, but is soon claimed by villagers Mady and Frayne as their daughter Isabelle, who was supposedly stolen by the local witch when she was six. Isabelle is not convinced, and neither is her supposed sister, Honey, who thinks Isabelle was sent by the witch to torment them. Will Isabelle ever remember who she truly is? Will she ever feel like she belongs again? Will she ever find out what happened to her?

Isabelle is an honest, likeable character who, while really wanting to belong and know who she is, is not ready to jump to any conclusions. While she doesn't like Honey, she doesn't disagree with her about the uncertainty of her origins.

As the events unfold and the truth starts to slowly seep in, both Isabelle and the reader feel the dread and anxiety building about how it will end. But it does end, and all wraps up well, and we know who Isabelle is and where she came from, and what happened to the stolen children.

I figured out who Isabelle was early on. But whether you figure it out or not, it is still a delicious little twist on the typical witch fairy tale. I highly recommend it!