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A review by chrissymcbooknerd
Girl Wonder by Alexa Martin
4.0
The first thing I noticed about GIRL WONDER, by Alexa Martin, was the fabulous cover. The colors are gorgeous -- vivid and bright against the stark black background. And while I do my best not to judge a book by its cover, this was definitely a cover that made me more curious about the pages inside.
Our wonderfully flawed heroine, Charlotte, has been forced to transfer to a new, strange school just in time for her senior year. (Tragic!). To make matters worse, she's been denied entrance into the program for gifted students, much to the dismay of her Ivy-League-expectant parents, especially given that her younger brother is somewhat of a child prodigy. Charlotte suffers from a learning disability that impairs her comprehension of numbers, although she knows quite a bit about literature and public speaking, thanks in part to her father (a published author).
So, once Charlotte is thrown into the ranks of the intellectually average, she feels somewhat like a nobody. The gifted students have their own (nicer, more modern) section of the school, and those are the students with the popularity and reputation that any high school senior would crave. Charlotte hopes she can merely make it through this year, as nobody, with the possibility that maybe her mediocre SAT scores may be enough to get her into a substandard college -- at least.
Fate has other plans, though, and Charlotte soon finds herself thrown in the reigns of Amanda, a rich, beautiful, popular troublemaker of a student who becomes Charlotte's key to meeting Neal, the most perfect of the gifted seniors. Although Charlotte is sure that Neal would never take interest in an average-type girl like herself, she soon finds herself on the verge of losing her loner status -- and her virginity -- to this perfect speciman.
But, as in all good reads, someone has secrets -- Amanda, Neal, and even Charlotte's parents. Why is Amanda always intent on turning everything into a competition? Why does Neal advise Charlotte that they must keep their new relationship and total and complete secret? And why is Charlotte's dad never home anymore?
GIRL WONDER is definitely a cute, fun, readable realistic young adult fiction novel that I'm happy I had a chance to read, via the NetGalley website. The characters were completely relateable and recognizable from my own high school experiences, without being overtly stereotypical. While, at times, Charlotte seemed frustratingly naive about the situations going on around her (I'm pretty sure we ALL knew what was going on with Neal... and dad... and another young male character, light-years before Charlotte picked up on the obvious clues around her), this may not be all that unrealistic for a high school senior who walks around with her head in the clouds. (Sound familiar, anyone?)
It's always refreshing to find a book that I just want to sit down and read -- not necessarily because there are vampires, werewolves, or fallen angels leaping from the pages, screaming for my attention, demanding that I turn each page a bit faster to uncover the next plot point. No, this was more one of those YA novels where the I came to see the characters as interesting --- endearing --- and I wanted to read to see what would happen next in their lives... not just as a plot point, but as an actual (fictional) event in an actual (fictional) character's life.
Overall, I really did enjoy GIRL WONDER and I would look forward to reading more from Alexa Martin in the future!
Our wonderfully flawed heroine, Charlotte, has been forced to transfer to a new, strange school just in time for her senior year. (Tragic!). To make matters worse, she's been denied entrance into the program for gifted students, much to the dismay of her Ivy-League-expectant parents, especially given that her younger brother is somewhat of a child prodigy. Charlotte suffers from a learning disability that impairs her comprehension of numbers, although she knows quite a bit about literature and public speaking, thanks in part to her father (a published author).
So, once Charlotte is thrown into the ranks of the intellectually average, she feels somewhat like a nobody. The gifted students have their own (nicer, more modern) section of the school, and those are the students with the popularity and reputation that any high school senior would crave. Charlotte hopes she can merely make it through this year, as nobody, with the possibility that maybe her mediocre SAT scores may be enough to get her into a substandard college -- at least.
Fate has other plans, though, and Charlotte soon finds herself thrown in the reigns of Amanda, a rich, beautiful, popular troublemaker of a student who becomes Charlotte's key to meeting Neal, the most perfect of the gifted seniors. Although Charlotte is sure that Neal would never take interest in an average-type girl like herself, she soon finds herself on the verge of losing her loner status -- and her virginity -- to this perfect speciman.
But, as in all good reads, someone has secrets -- Amanda, Neal, and even Charlotte's parents. Why is Amanda always intent on turning everything into a competition? Why does Neal advise Charlotte that they must keep their new relationship and total and complete secret? And why is Charlotte's dad never home anymore?
GIRL WONDER is definitely a cute, fun, readable realistic young adult fiction novel that I'm happy I had a chance to read, via the NetGalley website. The characters were completely relateable and recognizable from my own high school experiences, without being overtly stereotypical. While, at times, Charlotte seemed frustratingly naive about the situations going on around her (I'm pretty sure we ALL knew what was going on with Neal... and dad... and another young male character, light-years before Charlotte picked up on the obvious clues around her), this may not be all that unrealistic for a high school senior who walks around with her head in the clouds. (Sound familiar, anyone?)
It's always refreshing to find a book that I just want to sit down and read -- not necessarily because there are vampires, werewolves, or fallen angels leaping from the pages, screaming for my attention, demanding that I turn each page a bit faster to uncover the next plot point. No, this was more one of those YA novels where the I came to see the characters as interesting --- endearing --- and I wanted to read to see what would happen next in their lives... not just as a plot point, but as an actual (fictional) event in an actual (fictional) character's life.
Overall, I really did enjoy GIRL WONDER and I would look forward to reading more from Alexa Martin in the future!