Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Review: Fake Me a Match by Lauren Barnholdt


Title:Fake Me a Match
Author:Lauren Barnholdt
Publisher:Simon & Schuster
Imprint:Aladdin
Pub. Date:10/04/2011
ISBN:1442422580 (ISBN13: 9781442422582)
Pages:288


Avery LaDuke is in the market for a new best friend. Her former BFF, Sophie Burns, dumped her to hang out with the popular crowd at school. But the good news Avery's getting a new sister who's bound to be her new BFF too! Blake is her age and she's from New York. How cool is that? But things don't go quite as smoothly as Avery hoped. And what's with Blake becoming BFFs with Sophie? Huh?? That wasn’t supposed to happen!


When Avery gets put in charge of the eighth grade charity project, an on-line matchmaking service, she thinks she can use this project to get Blake back on her side. She decides to fix the matches so that Blake gets matched with Sam, the most popular boy in school, but when the matches come out something has gone seriously wrong! Not only is Avery matched with Sam, but the class advisor knows that someone tampered with the program. On top of that, Avery discovers that she actually kind of, sort of, likes Sam . . . and he likes her back. Torn between the guy she likes and her sister/best friend, Avery is left wondering: is there any possible way she can keep them both?



(Summary and cover via Goodreads)

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Avery is very excited to be getting a new step-sister, and she is pulling out all the stops so they will be best friends. Unfortunately, her new step-sister Blake is less than interested. Until she meets Sam, who often hangs at his grandmother's house right around the corner. Now Blake is ready to hang out all the time (provided Sam is near). Things get more complicated though as Sam starts to pay more attention to Avery. Throw in picking out bridesmaid dresses, chairing the student council charity project, and trying to train the new dogs Blake was dying to get, and Avery suddenly has her hands very full. Avery will have to be very careful to get everything done without making an enemy of Blake. Or Sam.

This was a very cute book. I thought Avery was a very fun character. She was a bit of an overachiever, but not in an annoying way. She really seemed like a fun 13 year old. I thought Blake was incredibly annoying at first, but she grew on me as the book went on. I can see how that must have been a hard situation to be in. It was pretty funny as she tried to be so much more worldly than Avery. Avery was more content to progress at her own pace and not try to be more mature too fast. I think Sam would have been my dream guy at 13. He was smart and funny (although a bit more considerate than I've known any boy that age to be). The plot was fairly basic, but it was entertaining. Avery got into quite a few scrapes, some of which were easily solved. In fact some of them were so easily solved I wondered why they even happened. I guess it did add for more wacky fun though.

I think any tween girl will love this book. It has just the right amount of fun and romance. It's all totally age appropriate too. I had a really great time reading it at any rate. Avery was a bit like me at that age, and I was transported back in time for a bit. So overall, this is a very fun book!

Galley provided for review.

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