The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club. Her father's "Bunny Rabbit." A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: 
A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston. 
Frankie Landau Banks:
No longer the kind of girl to take no for an answer. Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriends all-male secret society. Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places. Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them. When she knows Matthew is lying to her. And when there are so many, many pranks to be done 
Frankie Landau Banks at age 16: 
Possibly a criminal mastermind.  
Let me start off by saying that I love this novel I especially loved it the first time that I read it. E. Lockhart truly has a gift for making me feel so connected to the characters and stories. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is told from the perspective of Frankie, a new student at an elite boarding school. This novel may seem like just another average boarding school novel, but don't be fooled by this first impression, Frankie is a spunky and lovable character. She's the type of girl that I always looked up to because she's cool, but she's also wickedly smart and has a little bit of an edge. When she finds herself attending the same boarding school that her father had attended years earlier she makes it a goal of hers to sniff out the all male secret society that she had heard rumors of as a kid. 
This novel is filled with some of the cliches of boarding school, but they're offset by Frankie. Frankie is such a brilliant character. We see her at the start heading into high school and we se the transformation that she makes. E. Lockhart says it best by describing her as "no longer the kind of girl to take no for an answer" because Frankie is determined and she lets us follow along on her path to manipulating and outwitting this super secret society. All in all, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is fast- paced and a must read, I read it for the first time in middle school and now a few years later I still love it. It puts me in a good mood and it has such a great mystery element to it that you'll want to read it in one sitting.
4 Cupcakes! 

The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

Penny is sick of boys and sick of dating, so she vows: No more. She's had one too many bad dates, and has been hurt by one too many bad boys. 
It's a personal choice... and soon everybody wants to know about it. It seems that Penny's not the only girl who's tired of the way girls change themselves (most of the time for the worse) in order to get their guys... or the way their guys don't really care. 
Girls are soon thronging to The Lonely Hearts Club, and Penny finds herself near legendary for her nondating ways - which is too bad, since the leader of The Lonely Hearts club has a certain boy she can't help but like.... 


I read The Lonely Hearts Club in nearly one sitting. It is a perfect, fast paced, beach read. It is light and made me laugh at times and is very relatable to most any teen girl.
Penny Lane Bloom was named  her for parents passion for The Beatles. Elizabeth Eulberg cleverly weaves song titles and lyrics showing how Penny has grown up and embraces her parents love for The Beatles and how they are a part of her personality in a way. The Beatles being threaded into the novel is just one of the subtleties that make Eulberg's writing imaginative and creative
Penny is kind and inclusive, which sparks the interest in The Lonely Hearts Club with her peers at school and leads to a much bigger group of girls than she ever could have anticipated. I found while reading that all of the girls in The Club are so kind and supportive of each other and never catty or mean. They are the type of girls I would want as my friends because they look out for each other and have fun together. The Lonely Hearts Club grows to become a support system for high school girls just as Penny grows up and matures as a person. Eulberg creates characters in The Lonely Hearts Club that are very relatable and friendly I felt like I was a part of The Lonely Hearts Club at McKinley High School following Penny, the fearless leader! 4 Cupcakes!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

It is the summer of 1950- and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp is bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. 


The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is Alan Bradley's first of hopefully many Flavia de Luce Mysteries. I loved it! This mystery novel is an absolute must read. This novel takes place in 1950 England on the Buckshaw estate and is about an 11 year old girl, Flavia de Luce. My first instinct was to believe that an 11 year old character was going to be immature; I felt too old to be reading this novel but I quickly found that Alan Bradley's brilliant writing is applicable to all ages. Flavia is a curious and precocious character, who loves chemistry and uses it to torture her two older sisters. Flavia is such an incredible heroine that I can't wait to start reading The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, the sequel to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Through out the novel Flavia proves to be incredibly clever as she works to uncover the mystery on a quest through the quaint town of Bishop's Lacey. Alan Bradley brings this story alive with witty and entertaining writing that kept me engaged until the end. This is a great summer read and a book you'll be sure to share with your friends! 4.5 Cupcakes!