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

Don't You Wish

By Roxanne St. Claire

Release Date: July 10, 2012

Source: Publisher

Summary: 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 inside, 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?

The choice isn't as simple as you think.
Review: It has been quite some time since I've read a really great YA contemporary, so Don't You Wish was EXACTLY what I needed! With a fun story about a nobody waking up to be a somebody and realizing that life wasn't exactly what she had wished for. 

Annie Nutter is a girl everyone can relate to; she just can't seem to fit in with her braces, band-geek status, and her perpetual crushes that result in longing stares from the front of the bus. And her family completely embraces their last name. Her Dad is an inventor who always has a new idea up his sleeve, her brother can't go one sentence without fitting in a burp, and her mother is, well, her mother. So when a huge storm hits Annie's home and she wakes up the next morning as super rich, popular, and gorgeous Ayla Monroe, Annie has no idea what to do. Stuck in a life of a girl who is exactly like the kind of people she has spent her entire life admiring, Annie really isn't sure the life she's always wished for is the life she wants anymore. But how can she get back to her normal life? Does she even want to? 

It's fantastic watching Annie adjust to living the life of Ayla, who seems to be flawless on the outside but turns out to be the stereotypical mean girl on the inside. Her new best friends are both as shallow as Ayla seems to be, so it's no surprise they notice something is up when Annie comes along in Ayla's body. You can't help but root for Annie as she finds herself slipping away from the popular life she has fallen into and wanting to create a life full of meaning and actual feeling. And that feeling includes a certain cutie named Charlie, who is the school's scholarship kid. I absolutely love Charlie and grew so attached to him as the book went on. I wish I could build my own space continuum machine that would let me have Charlie all to myself! 

But enough about me! I loved the whole idea of this book and enjoyed every second of it. You're left guessing what will happen until the last page, which is really hard to find in a book these days. As Roxanne St. Claire's debut YA novel, I'd say she definitely hit this one out of the park!