So Not Happening

May 25, 2009
This first installment of the Charmed Life series introduces high school socialite, Bella Kirkwood. A New Yorker, she begrudgingly lands in the Midwest after her mother “got traded in for a newer model” and remarries a man who earns his living manufacturing feminine products in rural Oklahoma. Used to high society parties and shopping sprees, Bella feels like “a fish out of water... a Jimmy Choo in a sea of Payless BOGOs” in her new home, living in a house where “1970 came for a visit, threw up, and never left.” Still, her days are anything but dull. Once she joins the school newspaper and gets wind of a story involving a football scandal, she puts herself in danger trying to scoop her condescending (but cute) editor. The blend of comedy, adventure and mystery isn't always smooth (a scene in which Bella cracks jokes while being held at gunpoint is hard to swallow), but Bella's witty narration provides some laugh-aloud moments. Ages 12–up.

December 1, 2009
Gr 6-9-Isabella Kirkwood is a popular, privileged Manhattan socialite who is in for a big awakening when her mother remarries, and the teen is forced to move to Oklahoma farm country. Shortly after starting at her new school, she posts a blog on her former New York private academy's Web site insulting everything and everyone in her new town. Almost immediately, her new classmates find out about it, and Isabella becomes a social pariah. The series is labeled Christian fiction, but other than scattered references to prayers and church attendance, there is little in the story to indicate any kind of spiritual awakening or growth on the part of the main character. In addition, a number of situations stretch the bounds of plausibility, such as when Isabella accepts a reporting assignment requiring her to sit for hours in a Dumpster in order to "investigate" the school's lack of recycling. Her stepfather is secretly training to be a pro-wrestler, and one of her classmates attempts to burn down her house while she is babysitting her stepbrother, and later holds her at gunpoint. Although much of the story is predictable, there are also some genuinely humorous moments mixed in. This is an additional purchase for libraries seeking chick-lit series that are free of sexual content and coarse language."Jessica Marie, Renton Public Library, WA"

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