Just Your Average Princess (review)
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Jamie is content working at her family’s pumpkin patch in Average, Illinois. In fact, she’s downright perky as she goes about the endless chores that keep the patch a popular spot for the locals—feeding the rabbits and goats at the petting zoo, picking squash, piling pumpkins into pyramids, taking her turn at the haunted house and the concession stand. Even her longstanding unrequited crush on Danny, one of the workers, doesn’t stress her out too much, especially since her equally longstanding goal of becoming the Pumpkin Princess seems about to come true. Then her cousin Milan arrives from California. The daughter of two A-list stars, Milan immediately turns Jamie’s world upside down, as everyone in Average, including Jamie’s parents, seems starstruck by the tabloid darling, but Milan seems to hate Jamie for no apparent reason. A predictable storyline would have Jamie do something awful to try to turn the town’s affection from Milan, and then regret it and make amends as she realizes that she’s misjudged Milan, with the two becoming best friends despite their differences; unfortunately, that’s exactly the clichéd plot the book delivers. The characters are straight from central casting with absolutely no quirks or surprises: Jamie is as sweet as a candy apple, and Milan as screechy as a hyperbolic Disney diva, and lo, hunky, flannel-shirted Danny can see through it all and decide on the right girl in the end. Still, it must be admitted that the formula is a cliché because it has an audience, and younger teen readers who like their pumpkin pie extra sweet and with more topping than substance may enjoy this romance.
