The Comeback

Sophie Donnelly has been at the top of the social ladder for the past few years. She's half of the school's IT couple. The other half is her boyfriend, Connor. Things are going well the first day of the new school year. At least until the new girl, Angie Vogel, shows up. In just a few short days, Angie manages to snag the lead in The Taming of the Shrew, gain instant popularity, and the icing on the cake...steal Sophie's boyfriend! Sophie trusted Connor, so when he announces quite publicly that they're over, it's all the humiliation Sophie can handle. She is determined not to let Angie keep her down, though. She's planeed to stage her own comeback. With the assistance of her best friend, Imogene (I mean Monet...), Sophie hatches one scheme after another. But every attempt to make Angie look bad rebounds on Sophie. Through all her turmoil, Sophie has to deal with Monet's irritating older brother, Dev. Little does Sophie realize that what she was looking for was right in front of her all along. A quick, quirky read, THE COMEBACK calls to mind such darkly comedic movies as Mean Girls, Election, and Heathers. No matter what Sophie attempts, it always backfires and leaves her worse off than before. For all those teens who are only B-listers or In-crowd hopefuls, THE COMEBACK will make you feel like you're finally getting even. Reviewed by: Jaglvr

The Comeback was a lot of fun for me. A popular girl tries to regain her status by any means necessary and take down the girl that stole her boyfriend... I liked that it stayed fun and no one really got hurt, almost but not really. It was exciting to see Sophie try to navigate high school after dropping down the popularity ladder several rungs after losing her boyfriend. Would she learn something new about herself? Stay the same? Become really mean? Sophie does get a little bit mean but not so much so that I disliked her. She gets herself into some funny situations thought for sure! By far my favorite part of the book was Sophie's flirtation with her best friend's brother, Dev who was like an annoying older brother to her. It was totally cute to watch, that made the book for me. Do they like each other do they not, do they? One thing that distracted me a bit was how many secondary characters there were without established personalities. There were so many I was often times confused what I already knew about that person from before in the story etc. So I could have used about half as many secondary characters. Fun drama-filled (in more ways than one) book with a very sweet romance as well!

Sophie Donnelly has everything she could possibly want. She has the perfect boyfriend, the perfect best friend, and she is pretty much guaranteed the lead role in the school play. Everything is going perfectly for her. That is, until Angie Vogel shows up. Without a second thought to Sophie her boyfriend leaves her for Angie who also stole the lead role from Sophie. Now she is stuck with practically no friends and no way to get them back. At least, that's what she first thinks. Sophie knows that she can't be unpopular and she will do anything to get her popularity back. But will she be able to live with the person it makes her? And does she really want Connor back or has she moved on to bigger and better things? I was pleasantly surprised with The Comeback. I really enjoyed it and I even managed to read the whole book in one sitting. While it was a very predictable book it was still really cute. Sophie was a pretty good character and I found myself rooting for her throughout the book. The Comeback is basically just a cheesy romance book. I have no problem with that but I know some people who would like a little more substance to their books. I have to say that I didn't really see a message in this book. Sophie was always just trying to get her popularity back and in the end she sort of seemed to understand that popularity wasn't everything but I don't think it was a very clear message. Overall, I liked The Comeback and I do plan on reading more of Marlene Perez's books. This one was just fun and easy and a good book to have on your shelf for a rainy day. I can't wait to read her other romance, Love In The Corner Pocket.

It seems like Sophie Donnelly has everything. She's one of the most popular girls at Kennedy High and has an equally popular not to mention super hot boyfriend, handfuls of cool friends, and a practically guaranteed lead in the school production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. But then Kennedy High acquires a new student Angie Vogel, and before Sophie can say "break a leg" and literally mean it, this blonde intruder swoops in and steals everything Sophie considers precious--first her golden role, then her golden boyfriend and the golden glow of being most popular. But this drama queen is not going down without a catfight, and it's about time everyone learned, particularly that Angie girl, who the spotlight rightfully belongs to. The Comeback didn't hold much promise for me at first but ended up charming me anyway. Sophie is your typical overdramatic teen, a little more catty and selfish than she realizes and a little too outspoken and honest for her own good. There's something undeniably endearing about her character despite her all-consuming and sometimes desperate desire to be the top of the social food chain. It's probably because all of us have felt some degree of Sophie's jealousy before. I was a little put off by how Angie was portrayed at first as a devil in blonde's clothing until I realized that Sophie was letting jealousy cloud her mind, and that made the story and Sophie's character more realistic. I really enjoyed Sophie's dramatic (pardon the pun) character growth as well as the somewhat predictable but still sweet romance that's integral to Sophie's progress. Most of the lesser characters were developed only enough to play their short role, and a couple of them were just a bit unrealistic, but Sophie's surprising believability more than made up for that. The Comeback is a quick and cute book that will leave readers grinning. The Comeback is a good pick for a weekend or sunny day. This book will be enjoyed by teen girls who also liked Love on Cue by Catherine Hapka, Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph, and My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters by Sydney Salter.