Review: Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer

~Official Synopsis~ 

Gigi, Bea, and Neerja are best friends and total overachievers. Even if they aren't the most popular girls in school, they aren't too worried. They know their real lives will begin once they get to their Ivy League colleges. There will be ivy, and there will be cute guys in the libraries (hopefully with English accents)! But when an unexpected event shows them they're missing out on the full high school experience, it's time to come out of the honors lounge and into the spotlight. They make a pact: They will each take on their greatest challenge—and they will totally rock it. 

Gigi decides to run for student rep, but she'll have to get over her fear of public speaking—and go head-to-head with gorgeous California Will. Bea used to be one of the best skiers around, until she was derailed. It could be time for her to take the plunge again. And Neerja loves the drama club but has always stayed behind the scenes—until now. These friends are determined to show the world that smart girls really can get what they want—but that could mean getting way more attention than they ever bargained for. . . .

Pages: 368

Published by: Balzer + Bray (June 26th, 2012)

Genre: YA contemporary/chick lit

My rating for Smart Girls Get What They Want:

This was a delightful, light-hearted story that had quirk and cuteness written all over it! It took me a little bit to get past the introductory chapters and explanations, but once I did, I really enjoyed the story.

What I liked:

-The cuteness: There were a lot of cute, sweet, giggle-inducing moments with the love interests and just some of Gigi's inner worries made me laugh because they're silly worries I sometimes have. Refreshing to read.

-The dialogue: The dialogue between the friends and classmates was very believable in that silly, teasing way that friends are with each other. They seemed very natural to me, and when Gigi talked to the love interests, she was quite witty sometimes and I liked that.

-Personalities: All sorts of personalities were showcased in the story and although some were irritating or even unlikable love interests, it was real. I liked the love interests for this reason too; there wasn't the typical bad boy or cute nerd in here, but a mix of a bunch of traits for each boy.

What I didn't like:

-Disappointing title: What originally made me pick this book up was the title and how awesome of a concept I thought it was. I'm a smart girl myself (lol) and sometimes I feel like high school boys don't go for the smart girls so reading about a smart girl having a little high school romance was appealing to me. However, the story didn't conclude as meaningful as I would have liked it to. Gigi and her friends do get what they want in the end, but I felt like for a lot of the book, they didn't know what they wanted; which changing your mind is not a bad thing to do, but I thought the title was going to have some big significance to it and it didn't.

-Graveyard and drama scenes: In the beginning of the story it was stressed that Gigi and her BFFs were incredibly tight knit so there were these graveyard and drama audition/practice scenes that were used to point out how they had silly traditions or had each others' backs, etc. However, the scenes were boring to me and I thought they took away from the overall plot.

-Predictability: The love interests both turned out to be different than I initially thought they would be like, which I say deserves a plus, but when I saw the turnarounds in the guys, it was quite straight forward how the romance and the rest of the story was going to play out. Nothing wowed me as the story came to a close.
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Recommended to readers who like: cute, quirky characters and romances, lighter stories, contemporary juvenile YA.

Sexual content: mild, very safe YA.