When Liz Lighty doesn't receive the scholarship she was depending on, she only has one thing left to do - enter the competition in her prom-obsessed town for prom queen which, if she wins, comes with scholarship money to fund her dream education and future medical career. As Liz barrels into the competition while dealing with her fear of being the center of attention, she also fights feelings for the new girl in town - and fellow prom queen hopeful Mack - but her town is old-fashioned, and if Liz was to be openly queer, the crown would never be hers..

This was a lovely read, and I thoroughly enjoyed being in this weird town with the most random, over the top prom celebrations that is so foreign to anything I've ever experienced. It was a little bit like being in The Twilight Zone.

I really loved Liz and all her reasons for wanting to become prom queen. She was mature yet young and innocent at the same time, and I loved how even though she was hurt in the past, she still more or less wore her heart on her sleeve. There is some great things in this about the ups and downs, and general complications of friendships, growing apart and coming back together which is completely natural to do as you grow up and become different people. I also loved Liz's family and particularly her relationship with her brother Robbie - I am always here for protective older sister/little brother dynamics. I actually would have loved more scenes with Liz's Granny and Grandpa in the book as the bits we got with them in the end, I really liked!

The book is quite dramatic - especially when it comes to Liz's relationship with Amanda - and I have seen some criticism of this. While it does go through a series of ups and downs, and is quite on the dramatic side (but then aren't all teen relationships sometimes like that?), I understood some of the reasons behind it all and why Liz was so tight-lipped on why she didn't want to openly come out in school.

One of the dislikes I had with this book was definitely the stereotypes I think it played into. I'm just presuming that American HS is nothing like what you see in the actual movies with over the top bimbos, and dumb jocks and the not so secret bullying. I found that some of the characters (like the PomBots and Derek) almost caricature like and Rachel was awful but almost too awful in a way - she never even really tried to hide her racism/homophobia and she felt like a character who would be smarter than that. I think it played a part well in showing how you can stand up to peers and friends when they are doing the wrong thing at least!

But overall, I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely read more from this author.