This gets a solid 3 stars from me. I liked this book despite all of its flaws and inconsistancies. Why? It was very readable; I think I liked the voice of the protagonist, Cindy Ella. Her family was a pretty entertaining bunch even while representing every negative LA stereotype. I won't even say negative because to some people, LOOKING FABULOUS IS A PRIORITY AND THAT'S COMMENDABLE. This definitely was the order of family values according to Cindy Ella's stepmom and stepsisters. So this book had a lot of LA stereotypes and I think that's why this book didn't nauseate me, because it didn't take itself seriously (at least I hope it didn't); it seemed to make fun of LA mentality. Every highschooler is on an anti-depressant (the school counselor hands out prescriptions like its going out of style), and everyone is in therapy. It is prom season and everyone is obsessed with their prom preparations--except for Cindy Ella, who thinks prom shouldn't be the most important thing, and that it puts unnecessary stress on kids.

As I said, I liked Cindy Ella, but for all her "anti-superficial stance" she spews a lot of pop culture references and seems to watch TV (Sex and the City) and movies (Pretty in Pink, Sixteen candles) non-stop. She mentioned that she wrote a blog and reads books but we never see her doing that. But hey, it is LA, so...

This book is a spin on a modern Cinderella if you didn't already get that, and there are some cute homages to the timeless fairytale such as the stepmom forcing Ella to babysit her baby brother every weekend, and Cindy Ella losing a high heel shoe towards the end of the book. This is enough of a theme for me, but this book also combines an 80's movies theme and a pop-culture celebrity obsession theme. Too many pop culture references! Even for a book that's trying to make fun of celebrity obsession. The 80's movies theme is sweet, but that should be in a whole seperate book, not combined with a Cinderella theme. It's too much. Like Joan Rivers' plastic surgery.