review: Don't You Wish by Roxanne St. Claire

Don't You Wish by Roxanne St. Claire
July 10, 2012
Delacorte Books For Young Readers
Young Adult | Contemporary
Standalone
Pages: 368
Source/Format: NetGalley/eGalley
Rating: ★★
Author's Website | Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound


This review kinda includes spoilers. Proceed with caution. ;) I couldn't write this review without going into some details. 


When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad's whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she's Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father—and she's the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school.  

In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire—if usually absent—father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilirating . . . and illegal. Here she's got a date to lose her V-card with the hottest guy she's ever seen.

But on the inside, Ayla is still Annie.

So when she's offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it?

The choice isn't as simple as you think.

IN A SENTENCE:

I love the idea behind Don't You Wish by Roxanne St. Claire what unpopular girl wouldn't love to become the rich, gorgeous popular girl by traveling to another universe? Sadly, the execution behind this idea didn't work for me at all. 

REVIEW:

I was really looking forward to Don't You Wish. I LOVE the idea--I mean, who wouldn't want to visit another universe? I would love to! Almost as much as I would love to time travel. WHOOOOOSH. 

But it was rocky from the very beginning. Holy crap, it was SO freaking cheesy! Aside from the bad dialogue, we have Annie who is basically the cliched plain girl: braces, crushing after the popular boy, shops at Walmart, etc. Le sigh. And then there's Ayla, whose family is rich, but her parents can't stand each other and she has to steal things to make everything all right, despite being rich and being able to buy the things she steals. 

This entire book is a walking cliche. I mean, the storyline is the popular girl falls for the nerdy boy. Ugh. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Why did she have to travel to another UNIVERSE in order to learn that looks don't matter, etc.? Laaaame. 

I wish I liked this one. I really do. But the faults in Don't You Wish pushed my buttons. I was so frustrated and annoyed with Annie and Bliss most of the time; Bliss being the "best friend" who isn't really a friend, despite Ayla and Bliss being really close once upon a time. I HATED Charlie and their silly little "143" thing and the FACT that they said it before they even dated (although, they were boyfriend and girlfriend before the date? I don't even KNOW.) (you can see why this bothers me. I like my romance to simmer, before being a full-blown boil.)

I really don't know about Don't You Wish. It was addicting--I read the first 100 pages right before bed, but it went downhill SO FAST when Annie woke up as Ayla. And I'm torn between liking and hating the name "Ayla." WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THAT? Like someone didn't hit the "K" for "Kayla." 

You know, the only thing that kept me reading was to see how it all turned out--and I didn't even like the ending. This book was just not for me, despite the intriguing premise. I hated the characters, I hated the cheesy-ness. I just did NOT like this one at all. I think it's really hard to connect with a book when you don't like the characters at all and they just annoy you to no end. 

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