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

Review: Don't You Wish
Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release date: July 10th 2012
Pages: 368
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: NetGalley
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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 insde, 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?

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars


I honestly was not expecting to like this book. I requested it on NetGalley back in my request-anything-that-looks-kinda-good phase (I've gotten better at only requesting what I really want to read now), and I thought I'd just read and review it because, well, I had to. But I ended up actually ejoying it!

The beginning of Don't You Wish is so much fun. There's really no other word to describe it - this book is pure fun. Yes, it's totally superficial and all about popularity, money, and looks, which would not be my thing at all, normally. But... I don't know why; I can't explain it, but I loved it in Don't You Wish. It's just so fun, perfect for guilty pleasure reading! This book reads so quickly! It's about 370 pages, which isn't too short, but I read it in less than three hours. It's a quick read you can just breeze through without stopping.


Annie is a pretty good MC. She's not the most complex character ever, but she's nice and easy to relate to, which I think is enough for a story like this one. The romance is cute, and Charlie is adorable - again, it's not the most meaningful relationship, but it works well with the story and left me satisfied overall.


Towards the ending, the book slows down a bit, and I didn't enjoy it as much. There's a lot of stuff about how Annie could get back to her old life and how all of this happened. All the explanations of the physics behind traveling from one universe to the other were kind of boring, for me, and I wasn't all that interested in the technical stuff. The ending is cliched, but I didn't mind, since that's just the kind of story this is.


Okay, so Don't You Wish is not a great or meaningful piece of literature. It probably won't stick with me, and I think it would work better for the younger set of YA readers. But if you're looking for a quick read, something fluff and fun, you should give Don't You Wish a try - it's definitely entertaining.

What are some books that you are embarrassed to admit you kind of loved? Any vapid, silly books you don't want people judging you by but actually liked?