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ifthebook's review
3.0
An enjoyable book, just not one that I'm going to read again in the near future. It's a pretty standard plot - smart girl falls for bad boy - but the trappings around the plot were pretty interesting. I like that the stakes were very high. The actual smart girl/bad boy relationship seemed a little odd to me, but overall I didn't have many complaints about this one.
booksforlosers's review
4.0
I bought this book SO long ago. I picked it up after like... maybe two and a half years of it sitting on my shelf? When I opened it I automatically related to the main character, who works in a hectic restaurant.
I found the book super cute and easy to read. I didn't hate the characters, and it wasn't so fluffy that it was cheesy, although I found a few things a bit far fetched, like how they charged 100-300 dollars PER homework assignment, like high school kids have that type of money to fling around, even if their parents are loaded.
But I enjoyed the perspective of the MC and the minor plot twist at the end (if you can call it that ig idk).
And even though the cover is totally outdated, the spine is perfectly fine.
I found the book super cute and easy to read. I didn't hate the characters, and it wasn't so fluffy that it was cheesy, although I found a few things a bit far fetched, like how they charged 100-300 dollars PER homework assignment, like high school kids have that type of money to fling around, even if their parents are loaded.
But I enjoyed the perspective of the MC and the minor plot twist at the end (if you can call it that ig idk).
And even though the cover is totally outdated, the spine is perfectly fine.
finesilkflower's review
4.0
Liked:
* Smart writing, with realistic and funny dialogue for high school nerds: sometimes clever, sometimes random, judiciously peppered with profanity.
* Plot twists and turns, and well-done uncertainty about what was going to happen.
* A surprisingly smart business model. For some reason I really dig YA books about running a business (see: Baby-sitters Club), but a frequent failing is that they overlook ways to make their business run smoother, or fail to go into detail about how it runs. The cheating ring gets complex enough to be satisfying, while running smartly enough to reflect well on the intelligence of its creators. It even features some good ideas I didn't come up with first, such as writing "I have syphilis" in highlighter pen on the completed homework so that the purchasers are forced to recopy it in their own handwriting before handing it in.
* A minimum of tired moral angsting about whether cheating is wrong, until the very end (which felt tacked on anyway, so you can kind of ignore it).
The only problems I had were at the very end. Several rather unbelievable events comprised a happy ending whose over the top goodness belied the reasonable realism of the rest of the book. I would have respected the book more if
Despite a few missed tricks and a bit too fairyland-romance of an ending, the book was a highly enjoyable, well-written and well-put-together high school dating/business/cunning scheme story.
* Smart writing, with realistic and funny dialogue for high school nerds: sometimes clever, sometimes random, judiciously peppered with profanity.
* Plot twists and turns, and well-done uncertainty about what was going to happen.
* A surprisingly smart business model. For some reason I really dig YA books about running a business (see: Baby-sitters Club), but a frequent failing is that they overlook ways to make their business run smoother, or fail to go into detail about how it runs. The cheating ring gets complex enough to be satisfying, while running smartly enough to reflect well on the intelligence of its creators. It even features some good ideas I didn't come up with first, such as writing "I have syphilis" in highlighter pen on the completed homework so that the purchasers are forced to recopy it in their own handwriting before handing it in.
* A minimum of tired moral angsting about whether cheating is wrong, until the very end (which felt tacked on anyway, so you can kind of ignore it).
The only problems I had were at the very end. Several rather unbelievable events comprised a happy ending whose over the top goodness belied the reasonable realism of the rest of the book. I would have respected the book more if
Spoiler
(a) the skeevy guy didn't turn out to be secretly scrupulous, or at least didn't turn out to be secretly scrupulous in EVERY WAY, or if (b) the main character didn't have a sudden uncharacteristic crisis of conscience requiring all of her friends to turn into supermen to get her out of the hole she dug. There were also missed opportunities to (a) redeem the spurned blackmailer and not totally fall into the "ugly people are bad, pretty people are good" dichotomy; and (b) show the underachieving business partner getting better at school through cheating, when business got so good that he actually had to take on some of the work.Despite a few missed tricks and a bit too fairyland-romance of an ending, the book was a highly enjoyable, well-written and well-put-together high school dating/business/cunning scheme story.
melrosereads's review
3.0
This is the very first book I downloaded and I even forgot where I found the recommendation of this book and it wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. I think because it's my first book after a long period of hiatus that I still remember scenes from the book.
daysed's review against another edition
3.0
the whole thing was just ok, but the "I'm Spartacus" line had the perfect delivery.
maidmarianlib's review against another edition
3.0
Asian American girl gets drawn into building a cheating ring at school with a popular guy to make money to save her families restaurant. Eventually the two fall in love. Interesting premise beyond the normal chick-lit plot. Good characters. Has some mild swearing.
marie123's review
2.0
This book started great and I was very exciting, but things got a bit too predictable and bit flat for me. At many points, it read very young and like a Disney channel movie where everybody learned a valuable lesson about truth and love! But at other moments it tried to be older, with sex jokes and creepy old men hitting on 17 year old waitresses???????
But it was a quick read and still was fun, even if it didn't have much depth.
But it was a quick read and still was fun, even if it didn't have much depth.
hezann73's review
3.0
Maya spends most of her free time working in her parents restaurant and working to keep her GPA up so she can escape to Stanford next year. However, when her parents go out of town and leave Maya in charge, she makes a lapse in judgement that results in a $10,000 fine from the Health Department. Maya doesn't want to tell her parents about the fine, so she turns to the school scoundrel for help. Before she knows it, she and Camden are running a very lucrative cheating ring at school. But how close are they to getting caught?
This was a fun summer read - you know everything is going to turn out OK, but you still get concerned for Maya and her friends.
This was a fun summer read - you know everything is going to turn out OK, but you still get concerned for Maya and her friends.