Pretty Face by Mary Hogan

Title: Pretty Face
Author: Mary Hogan
Publisher: Harperteen
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Pages: 224

Rating: C-
Plot - 13/20
Characters - 14/20
Writing - 16/20
Originality - 13/20
Entertainment - 7/10
Recommendation - 8/10
Total: 71/100

Summary:
Hayley wishes she could love living in Santa Monica, blocks from the beach, where every day—and everybody—is beautiful and sunny. But she just doesn't fit in with all the blond, superskinny Southern California girls who have their plastic surgeons on speed dial. Hayley is smart and witty and has such a pretty . . . face. Translation: Don't even think about putting on a bikini, much less dating superhot Drew Wyler. A bikini will never be flattering, and Drew will never think of her as more than a friend.

Just when Hayley feels doomed to live her life in the fat lane, her parents decide to send her to Italy for the summer—not for school, not for fat camp, just for fun. It's there, under the Italian sun, that Hayley's vision of herself starts to change. She's curvy, not fat. Pizza isn't evil. And life is so much more than one-size-fits-all. Who knows? Once Hayley sees herself in a new light, maybe the girl with the pretty face will finally find true amore.

Review:
This novel started out as a light, quick read. And, it stayed that way. Hayley was a girl, chubby, and never belonging in her family, school, city. Never really fitting in. So when she got the chance to spend her summer in Italy with a family friend, she took it. The novel went by really fast. It was light and there wasn't much meaning in it. There was a girl who didn't feel comfortable in her skin, got to go to Italy for the summer, met someone who liked her the way she was, and happily ever after.

Hayley was an . . . average character. There wasn't anything special about her, and her journey through the book really. It was all just average, originality, plot, characters. And the relationship between Hayley and Enzo was quick and there wasn't any emotions in it, therefore making it feel unrealistic.

Hogan's writing was really the high point of the novel, but still . . . average. She did a good job a expressing Hayley's feelings, the desriptions and scenery were good and the imagery was okay.

So all-in-all this was just, I feel repetitive here, average. Nothing special, interesting, and exciting about it that would make this novel stand out. But it's still recommend for a day read or something along that lines. But don't expect it to be moving.