Review: Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty

Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty by Jody Gerhman

3.5 stars

Reasons for reading: have been meaning to since it came out, looked fun; Young Adult Challenge book

Synopsis: Geena can't wait to spend summer vacation at the Triple Shot Betty coffee shop with her best friend, Amber, and her cousin, Hero. But Amber and Hero hate each other on sight, and Geena's dreams of a girl-bonding summer fly out the window—then vanish entirely when a few cute (okay, drop-dead gorgeous) guys enter the picture. All is not what it seems, though, and in a story of mistaken identities, summer high jinks, and just enough romance, Geena and her friends learn that when Bettys unite, they can take on the most powerful force in their world: a hot guy.

First lines: "Great. So much for my summer. I should have known."

My thoughts: At first I was confused by the Much Ado About Nothing angle - some of the names/characters matched, but some seemed not to and that irked me. But all it takes is patience - eventually all of the similarities are revealed and it's pretty cool. It helped that Much Ado is one of my favourite plays! I thought that she modernized it very well. I also liked the added angle of super-bad, sweet, sweet revenge against the Prince John character.

Ben Battaglia is a dreamy, literary crushworthy guy in the Benedick role and I liked prickly, supersmart skater girl Geena, whose first name is actually Beatrice. White trashy tough girl Amber gets a lot more attention than the original Margaret character, which added to the story. And pink-sparkly princess Hero turned out to have more gumption than met the eye at first.

The verdict: Took me a bit of time to warm up to it, but it was worth getting to know the Bettys and I look forward to their next adventure. A great summer read.