Review of Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Book:  Mostly Good Girls
Author:  Leila Sales
Published By:  Simon Pulse
Pages:  288

From Goodreads:  The higher you aim, the farther you fall….It’s Violet’s junior year at the Westfield School. She thought she’d be focusing on getting straight As, editing the lit mag, and figuring out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva. Instead, she’s just trying to hold it together in the face of cutthroat academics, her crush’s new girlfriend, and the sense that things are going irreversibly wrong with her best friend, Katie.  When Katie starts making choices that Violet can’t even begin to fathom, Violet has no idea how to set things right between them. Westfield girls are trained for success—but how can Violet keep her junior year from being one huge, epic failure?
This was a cute, light read.  I've read other prep school novels where they seemed to be focused on the trouble students got in, the 'stuck-up' rich kids or the romances with the all boys school nearby.  This had some of those aspects but it was mostly a book about friendship.  I don't come across many of those books anymore.  Sure there are elements of friendship in every novel but not many that focus purely on that. 

I really enjoyed the author's character development of Violet and Katie.  Both of these girls seemed very real to me...in fact, I must admit that I am Violet.  I was always the girl who was smart and got good grades but I was never number one, but not for a lack of trying.  Like Violet, I pushed myself harder than my parents, teachers, or anyone at school ever could.  Because I had such high expectations of myself I often had too high of expectations for everyone else also, which is one to the problems with Violet and Katie's friendship.  I understand Violet's determination but I also understand Katie's need to be 'normal' and not have to live up to everyone's expectations.  She just wanted to be herself, what I essentially think every girl wants deep down.

This book was very funny and I often founds myself laughing along with the girls.  One of the main problems I had with the book is that there wasn't much action and the 'problem' or 'conflict' that did occur didn't happen until the end of the novel.  I wish there was a little more action or at least enriched the conflict more.

Overall, if you need a book you can relate to or a break from the paranormal books out there give this a try.