Early Review: Don't You Wish by Roxanne St. Claire

Don't You Wish
by Roxanne St. Claire


Expected publication: July 10th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad's whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she's Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father—and she's the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school.

In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire—if usually absent—father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilirating . . . and illegal. Here she's got a date to lose her V-card with the hottest guy she's ever seen.

But on the inside, Ayla is still Annie. So when she's offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it? The choice isn't as simple as you think.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Publication Date: July 10th 2012

Publisher: Delacorte

Format: eARC, 368 pages 

Series: no

Source: Netgalley

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My Review

First line: Some days it seems like half the backpacks of South Hills High whack me in the head on their way to the back of the bus.

Last line: "Yeah. He's for real."

Favorite quote: Should I stay or should I go? 

Sixteen-year-old Annie Nutter is an ordinary, plain Jane. All she wants is for Shane Matthews, teenage god, to look at her. Really look at her. But she soon regrets that, when Shane plays a cruel joke on her inside the school bus, humiliating her in front of everyone.

Annie's mother isn't having a very good day, either. She's found a picture of an old boyfriend in a very classy magazine, and suddenly all she can think and talk about is how life would have been if she had married that man, instead of Annie's crazy inventor/hoarder of a father. Annie can't help but start wondering the same thing. Would she exist in said world? Would she be the same, even if she had a different father? Would her soul be the same?

After her mother destroys her father's newest invention (which allowed you to choose which celebrities' body parts you wanted to have, and see what you would look like with them) in a moment of anger, Annie picks up the remaining parts, to try and salvage her only -and quite old-  notebook, used in the invention. While she holds the notebook and a cell phone showing the picture of the simulation of what she wished she looked like, her room is hit by lightining...

...and somehow she wakes up in a dream world. A dream world where she is who she has always wished she was. Beautiful. Loaded. Popular. A-list. But is it really a dream? Then how come she can't wake up? Annie is now in Ayla Monroe's body, and needs to start making some very serious decisions. Is Ayla really who she wanted to be? Popular, but living a fake life, with no real friends? Beautiful on the outside, but ugly, mean and cold on the inside? Rich in terms of money, but with a distant and estranged family, threatening to collapse? She can't help but ask herself:

Should I stay or should I go?

This book was a very nice read. Very light chich-lit on the whole, but with some very intense and thought-provoking moments. I especially liked the tentative theories to try to explain how the transition through multiple/alternate universes could happen. And Annie and Charlie were so adorkable! :3 He was super dreamy!

I think we all like to imagine how our lives would be if we were different or if our lives were different, or if we were born in different circumstances... well, this book makes us think: Be careful what you wish for! You just might get it. And regret it. :P

* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*