ARC Review: Elisa Ludwig - Pretty Crooked

Elisa Ludwig - Pretty Crooked

• Pub Date: March 13, 2012
• Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
• Format: Hardcover 368 pages
• Age Range: Young Adult

Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”-known to everyone as the Glitterati-without them suspecting a thing, is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her-evening the social playing field between the have and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.

But when the cops start investigating the string of burglaries at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could he wind up being the person that Willa trusts most?

I received this book on Net Galley. Here is my honest review:

This book is such a fantastic combination of Mean Girls and Robin Hood! I'm not the first to say that, but it's exactly how to describe this book. Willa Fox starts at a fancy shmancy college prep high school in Paradise Valley, AZ. She gets friendly with the "in" crowd, hilariously and cleverly called the Glitterati. Soon Willa finds out how mean these girls are and wants to put a stop to it. She comes up with a plan to steal from the rich girls to give to the poor ones they trash on a blog called Buzz. Seems genius, right? Hmm.. ;o)

Pretty Crooked is hilarious, smart, and originally fresh. I read the whole thing in a day because I couldn't put it down! I was so entertained and enthralled by Willa's journey that I just had to keep reading. It didn't hurt that I live near Paradise Valley, either. Some things she mentioned were real, like First Friday (which I STILL haven't gone to but would love to!), but some things I'd never heard of and cannot verify as of yet. Hmm. Anyway, this book is pretty great.

You can really get behind a girl like Willa. Her plan seems genuine, but it's obviously a little whacked. I kept forgetting that she's only 15, but that's fine. And the guys in the book.. Tre seems like a better choice, even with his record. Aiden is just kind of annoying to me sometimes. And the end. Oh the end. I was a little frustrated with that ending! This is an ARC so I wonder if she changed it. I'll have to look into that!

Bottom line: If you want to laugh while reading an original YA novel, do check this one out!

Rating: 

4/5 book sharks!