The A-List - Zoey Dean

[goodreads]

Title: The A-List
Author: Zoey Dean
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 243
Date read: March, 2011

Anna Cabot Percy, a well-to-do New Yorker who heads to L.A. for an internship -- and learns about Tinsel Town the hard way. Out to revamp her good-girl image while she's there, Anna gets sloshed on the L.A.-bound plane and winds up meeting Princeton-going hunk Ben Birnbaum, who almost makes Anna a member of the Mile-High Club (thank goodness for federal regulations). Ben also asks Anna to celeb Jackson Sharpe's New Year's Eve wedding, and when Anna finds herself arm-in-arm with him before Hollywood's glitterati, she learns that being with Ben means fierce competition from Samantha Sharpe -- Jackson's label-loving, snappy daughter -- and her vicious friend, Cammie Sheppard. Over the course of a few days, Anna discovers plenty about these two vixens and even gets an unpleasant surprise from Ben himself, but with plenty of "new-and-improved Anna" defenses up her sleeve, this girl is set to be the next star on the A-List.

I'd been wanting to read The A-List by Zoey Dean ever since I got the chance to review her How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls, which ended up being one of my favourite books read that year. Unfortunately The A-List didn't even come close to living up to my expectations, and I was sorely disappointed.

It started off very promising, with exactly the "Clueless"-like atmosphere I'd enjoyed so much in How to.... Unfortunately, it didn't keep it up and the plot started jumping all over the place. I think part of the problem was that it's the first book in a series, and too much page time was used setting the scene and introducing all the characters and plot lines that would be picked up in later books, leaving this one with a very unfinished feel.

It would probably have worked well as a pilot in a TV-series, but as it is, I have no desire to read the rest of the series.