Fairest of Them All

By: Jan Blazanin

Check out the trailer I did HERE

and my excuse for not posting this on schedule: It's all my teachers fault!
No seriously....we have 2 weeks left and this is the time they decide to assign various projects and essays! Anyway hopefully I'll have more reviews up soon after this one though I can't promise anything....
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By: Jan Blazanin

Summary:
If life were a fairy tale, Oribella Bettencourt would have a "happily ever after" kind of future ahead of her. A Hollywood producer has come to Des Moines in search of a perfectly modern Princess Rapunzel, and Ori -- a model, dancer, and star of the beauty pageant circuit -- lands the part. And why shouldn't she? With her hardworking, self-sacrificing mother guiding her career, Ori is stunning, dedicated, poised...and then there's her hair. Breathtakingly lustrous blond hair that sets her apart from all the other girls at school. So what if she doesn't have any friends her age, or anyone to talk to other than her mother? She's on the verge of having everything she's ever dreamed of.

But in this fairy tale, the beautiful princess wakes up to her worst nightmare -- when almost overnight, Ori begins to lose her hair.... (From Amazon)

Release Date: April 21, 2009

Review:
Character Development: 7/10
Originality: 9/10
Plot/Storyline: 6/10
Ending: 9/10
Voice: 6/10
Recommendation: 7/10
Total Score: 44
Grade: B+

One Sentence Summary:

A beauty queen must face many challenges (like losing her career, her mom, and her sense of belonging) after losing her hair to alopecia disease

One Sentence Review:

This book addresses a unique topic with strong characters and originality.

Recommend To:

Girls who love their hair or anyone looking for a lighthearted/fast read that still possesses a good and entertaining storyline

Written Review:

If someone asked me to describe Fairest of Them All in as few words as possible I would say that it is a book about strength. Strength in situations you don’t have control over. Not just having strength but not having it or losing it. Oribella thought she owned the world. She acted confident and strong in all situations until her hair was gone and along with that her strength left her too so she must rebuild it. Her mom loses all her strength when Oribella loses her hair. Her new friends learn to share some of their strength to help Oribella. And her agent must hold on to the little strength she has left after losing her best client. This was a theme that works and it truly made the novel enjoyable to me.

At the beginning Oribella has a whiny voice that makes her sound conceited and shallow and I could barely stand to read it. Once she’s past that she mellows out a ton and it made the novel so much better. I was amazed at Oribella’s mom most of the novel. I just didn’t find it believable that a mom would put THAT MUCH PRESSURE on their child. But maybe I just can’t understand it because I lucked out with a fantastic mom.

This novel was exactly a light read like I expected. It definitely had some depth and wisdom to it but it wasn’t a remarkably deep novel either. It’s kind of right in the middle. It was a fast read but it didn’t lack in the characters or plot line too much.

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Overall, I enjoyed Fairest of Them All. Beauty Pageant stories aren’t old but a “backward beauty” story was something new for me to read and it definitely kept me hooked.