Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality

Eulberg, Elizabeth. Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality
1 March 2013, Point
E ARC from Netgalley.com

Lexi is tired of spending her weekends following her seven year old sister Mackenzie around to beauty pageants, and is also angry about the money that is spent on this. It doesn't help that her mother and boys at her school consider her "plain". Her friend Benny, however, thinks she has the potential to be better looking and therefore get more boys, perhaps even her long time crush, Logan, who's dating a girl who competes in the high school pageants. Benny dares Lexi to fix herself up when hot football player Taylor asks for her help picking out clothes at the shop where she works, and the ruse is successful-- Taylor asks her out. Lexi dares Benny to fix up his own life and ask out Chris, the boy he's interested in. Soon, both Benny and Lexi are happily dating, leaving their friend Cameron feeling like a third wheel. As her mother's money woes steadily mount, Lexi considers moving to Houston to live with her father, but finds out that he is dating someone. Mackenzie's pageants are pushing the entire family to the edge, and Lexi is starting to feel like Taylor is only interested in her looks. Can Lexi manage to get control of the various facets of her life?
Strengths: *Sigh* If I had my druthers, I'd read nothing but books like this. I've been looking for some fresh romances, and haven't found any with the right balance for middle school, but this was perfect. Enjoyed it tremendously and will buy a copy right away.
Weaknesses: Like most YA romances, this is a bit on the angsty side. My readers are okay with that, but I prefer my romances to be all rainbows and unicorns! I didn't care for the over-the-top scene where Mackenzie and Lexi let their mother know how disgusted they were with pageants, but it was kind of funny.