How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True

April 29, 2013
Zoe is spending the summer as an intern at a hyper-controlling storybook theme park, a place she used to go with her mother before she died. Instead of being cast as a character, she is assigned to be "lady in waiting" to the Queen, the park's domineering manager. On her very first day, Zoe gets a demerit for picking park flowers, which could cost her the big college scholarship awarded to two star interns. But Zoe is not the only one breaking rules, and she soon realizes that "You could not pit a bunch of ambitious, talented, extremely theatrical rising high school seniors against one another with twenty-five thousand dollars at stake and not expect blood to be shed." Readers may have a hard time following the over-the-top scandals that unfold, but Strohmeyer's (Smart Girls Get What They Want) humorous details about the park itself (royal characters get better quarters than "Ordinary Cast Members," and princes are given exclusive access to a pheromone-rich cologne) provide a lively, unconventional backdrop as Zoe's emotional wounds slowly begin to heal. Ages 13âup. Agent: Heather Schroder, ICM.

February 1, 2013
Lured by the promise of a large cash prize and the opportunity to work as a costumed intern at a destination fairy-tale theme park, 17-year-old Zoe Kiefer struggles to earn the approval of the eccentric and manipulative Queen of the park. Zoe's duties as lady-in-waiting seem straightforward: obey Her Majesty's orders to the letter; improve her mood with compliments and by slipping sugar secretly into her strict diet; take good care of Tinker Bell, her minute, caviar-guzzling, fluffball mutt; excise from the Queen's reading material all mention of the hated "Mouse" (of the Mickey variety). But try as she does to do her job well and abide by the rules of Fairyland (all 270 of them), events get away from Zoe. She finds herself in several compromising and angst-ridden situations, mostly brought about by her well-meaning desire to promote her cousin Jess' interests. In spite of the efforts of various princes, charming and nefarious, to aid or thwart her desires, she wins out in the end. The chatty tone of Zoe's narration is pitch-perfect, laced as it is with teen humor and obsessions with relationships, clothing and makeup. The narrative, always hard to follow, ends in a madcap maelstrom of conflicting interests, improbable revelations and multiple personality changes in which believability is cheerfully sacrificed in the interest of allowing Zoe's dreams to (mostly) come true. But credibility probably has no place at Fairyland Kingdom....Wow!a"[ anyway. (Fiction. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2013

Gr 7-10-Zoe Kiefer, 17, and her cousin, Jess, are interns at Fairyland Kingdom, an over-the-top theme park in New Jersey. These internships are coveted, with the princess and prince roles going to those teens who had spent thousands of dollars attending prestigious Fairyland summer camps. Jess gets cast as a Little Red Riding Hood and Zoe is tasked with being the demanding Queen's personal assistant (aka slave). Zoe worries that these subpar positions won't put them in the running for the Dream and Do grant, a $25,000 prize that both girls desperately need. As Zoe runs around Fairyland fetching the Queen's meager breakfast (three almonds, two grapefruit slices cut into thirty pieces, and a yolk-free egg), walking her malevolent bichon frise, and charting poor Cinderella's weight gain, she discovers that the internship is not without its drama. Most of the interns would do just about anything to win the prize money, including selling out Zoe to the Queen. But when she is rescued by a charming prince, she must determine where her loyalties lie-with the Queen and the Fairyland she's loved since her youth, or with the boy who's captured her heart. Zoe is a likable protagonist and her narration is sharp and witty. The Queen, with her posh vocabulary and insane demands, rivals that of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. This clever, happily-ever-after story will charm fans of Meg Cabot and make new ones of Strohmeyer.-Kimberly Garnick Giarratano, Rockaway Township Public Library, NJ

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2013
Grades 7-10 When is being in Fairyland not a dream come true? When Fairyland is an amusement park, and your summer internship requires playing lady-in-waiting to the unpredictable queen, keeping her caviar-eating bichon frise out of the Forbidden Zone, and guarding your back from conniving fellow interns as you all scramble toward a $25,000 grant to be awarded at the end of the summer. Zoe Keifer has her eyes on that grantin the hopes of handing it over to her cousin, Cinderella-wannabe Jessand she is sure she can win it if she can just convince her boss that she has the required Wow spirit. Because the title reveals that Zoe's dreams (mostly) come true, there is no real suspense as to the ending of the book. But the journey there is fun. Fairy-tale elements are evident not just at the amusement park but in Zoe's own life, as she nabs herself a Prince Charming and a fairy godmother, too. Zoe is smart enough to pull off the seemingly impossibleand sweet enough to deserve it. For fans of rom-coms everywhere. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Strohmeyer is a best-selling author whose books include The Cinderella Pact, which became the Lifetime movie Lying to Be Perfect. National marketing plans include a Make Your Dreams (Mostly) Come True social-media campaign.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)