Young Adult Review: Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Paperback, 347 pages

Published: Oct. 5th, 2010 by Simon Pulse

Source: Gift

The higher you aim, the farther you fall…. It’s Violet’s junior year at the Westfield School. She thought she’d be focusing on getting straight As, editing the lit mag, and figuring out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva. Instead, she’s just trying to hold it together in the face of cutthroat academics, her crush’s new girlfriend, and the sense that things are going irreversibly wrong with her best friend, Katie.

When Katie starts making choices that Violet can’t even begin to fathom, Violet has no idea how to set things right between them. Westfield girls are trained for success—but how can Violet keep her junior year from being one huge, epic failure?

I received this book quite a while back as a gift from a good friend and I've been sad that I wasn't able to fit it in.  One day I decided to just set everything aside and just read it already.  I loved Past Perfect by Leila Sales so I went in with high expectations.  The book didn't have quite as much focus (plot) as I'd expected but it wasn't really an issue because the book was hilarious (like I was hoping) and thoroughly entertaining.

Violet is a good girl.  She has to work for her good grades and has extremely high expectations for herself.  She's one teenager that really does focus on her school work.  Her parent's don't pressure her, so the pressure is all her own.  She really wants to do her very best.  She attends a private girls school and has very little experience with boys.  This leads to very hilarious dialogue between herself and her friend Katie, as well as in her head. 

In the book Violet's best friend Katie is clearly going through a difficult time.  She's changing, and Violet doesn't like it.  She's making strange choices and isn't as focused as she usually is.  She starts acting out and doing 'typical' teen things, or at least trying to.  She drags Violet along for many of these rides, but Violet really isn't having none of it.  She doesn't want to lose Katie and attempts to do some of these things with her, but her heart just isn't into 'being a typical teen'.  This causes some tension between the two.  I really felt bad for Violet and didn't like Katie through a large portion of the book because of her behavior and the way she was treating Violet.  In the end I was quite happy with the resolution though. 

The book was hilarious, that was definitely the best part of it, but I also really liked Violet a lot.  She's a different sort of teenager and I liked that.  I like that she's focused, but not really a goody-two-shoes or a follower.  She blazes her own path in her determination to be the best she can be. 

I definitely recommend this to those who are looking for a light and funny YA contemporary book.  It's a lot of fun and definitely not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon!