Wicked Jealous: A Love Story

by Robin Palmer

Overview

A fresh and funny twist on Snow White from the author of Cindy Ella and Geek Charming! The ideal L.A. fairy tale for fans of Once Upon a Time and L.A. Candy

Simone never saw herself as the "cute girl"--she was always the chunky smartmouth. But after a year of avoiding her wicked almost-stepmonster through Zumba class, Simone's now sporting a whole new retro style. And people keep acting oddly. One thing: her stepmonster seems to be trying to accidentally kill her, or at least fatten her back up. And so when Simone's brother offers to let her move in with him and his six roommates for the summer, Simone jumps at the chance for some normalcy. Only living with seven very different college boys isn't exactly going to help her land her very own happily ever after . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101572498
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	07/19/2012
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	758 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Robin Palmer worked in TV and movie production before she decided to give the writing thing a try. Since then, she's written everything from screenplays to essays to novels to TV pilots. Her novel Geek Charming was made into a Disney TV movie starring Sarah Hyland. She is also the author of the Yours Truly, Lucy B. Parker series for middle grades. She currently lives in a pink barn in New York.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Wicked Jealous is a modern day fairy tale that has everything a girl needs—romance, comedy, and seven hot college guys." —Jen Calonita, bestselling author of the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series

"A fun and frothy modern fairy tale!" —Melissa de la Cruz, author of the Blue Bloods series, on Cindy Ella

Editorial Reviews

"Wicked Jealous is a modern day fairy tale that has everything a girl needs—romance, comedy, and seven hot college guys." —Jen Calonita, bestselling author of the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series

"A fun and frothy modern fairy tale!" —Melissa de la Cruz, author of the Blue Bloods series, on Cindy Ella

From the Publisher

Zumba, Redbull, and stress have taken Simone Walker from the "weird fat girl" to Audrey Hepburn "with breasts and an appetite." While a whole new look, new wardrobe, and male attention ends up being more fun than overeating, it also makes life a bit complicated—especially when her glamorous new look so threatens her evil, soon-to-be-step-mother, Hillary, that she plots to sabotage Simone. To top it all off, Simone finds herself agreeing to live with her college-aged brother and his six roommates for a month while her father and her almost-step-mother take a vacation in Tuscany. While nurturing a relationship with a sweet but vapid popular boy from her high school, Simone also finds herself falling for Blush, one of her brother's roommates. With Simone as the Snow White character (allergic to apples, naturally), the roommates as the seven dwarves, and the requisite evil step-mother, Simone's story is a pop-culture-laden fairy tale retelling similar to Palmer's prior novels Cindy Ella (Penguin, 2008), Geek Charming (Penguin, 2009/Voya April 2009), and Little Miss Red (Penguin, 2010/Voya April 2010). The humor of the book is that old people mess things up by saying things like "off the doorknob" and calling Justin Bieber "Jackson Brewster," and the major tension in the book is an absurd lack of communication. To be fair, the novel is not trying to be anything more than a quick read, a light and fluffy fairy tale set against a fantasy LA/Hollywood. It will not be winning any awards for its faux-feminist commentary, but it has its charms. Reviewer: Jennifer M. Miskec

VOYA - Jennifer M. Miskec

In a modern wish-fulfillment fairy tale that applies and removes feminism like makeup--frequently, easily and with relish--Simone goes from That Weird Fat Girl to hottie. Simone has pale skin, jet-black hair and lips so naturally red that her wannabe-stepmother smolders with jealousy. Hillary's 28-year-old, zero-fat body and blond hair have Simone's widowed father under "some kind of spell." Snow White details sparkle: Classmate Jason's "sort of a prince" in this wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood because his dad's Oscars make him royalty; Simone spends summertime in a house with seven men (her happy--get it?--brother and six others, including a sleepyhead with narcolepsy); Hillary evilly provides Hostess Apple Pies to trigger Simone's apple allergy. The frothy danger matches the contemporary pop culture (Jersey Shore; Urban Dictionary) and brands (Saab; OPI vs. Essie). Simone's first-person narration is wryly funny. However, messages mix: The text name-checks feminism, then counsels passivity because being "girl-like" is bad. Palmer conflates being "officially fat" (size 16) with Tastykake binges and emotional repression, and she imbues dieting to fit a size 8 dream dress with Simone's new feeling that "I looked like… me." Her real dream boy is African-American--Blush, one of the seven--yet offhanded racial jabs pepper the story. Apple-flavored cotton candy: fast and tasty, possibly slightly poisonous. (Fiction. 11-14)

Kirkus Reviews