Normally this isn't my type of book AT ALL, but I loved it. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the descriptions and reading passages to whomever happened to be nearby! The similes and metaphors are fresh and powerful and the humor is believable. I think Smale's modeling experience shines through in her writing. It's her insightful observations of human nature that makes the book so darn funny.
Definitely an author I'm going to follow and I'll be putting a couple copies of this title on our library shelves.
Harriet Manners does not intend to break her best friend's heart by landing the career opportunity that Nat has dreamed of her whole life. She does not set out to make her parents angry with her and she certainly doesn't mean to downplay their roles as parents, but she does all of this and more in Smale's hilarious debut novel.
This is the perfect book for girls who want a little bit of humor, a little romance, and a whole lot of laughing out loud as you turn the pages!

Not often do I not enjoy a book, but this one just didn't do much for me. My big problem with the book is that the author had NO idea how a grade six going into grade seven behaves, and as a result, his twelve year old character, Tad, was not at all believable. Carvell mixes things from the primary years (dinosaurs and drawing dinosaurs where people's faces would normally be) with actions and events from high school such as being the parents of an egg child in a health class or reading Animal Farm; both of those activities are done in high school here. So, because I didn't get the feeling that Tad was an authentic twelve year old, I didn't enjoy the story as much as I might have if his actions had been believable for a middle school student. Also, it's supposed to be a blog he's writing, so having it written in a book just seemed kind of fake. It did have some funny comments, but overall the book just didn't work. Having said that, I think kids who liked the Captain Underpants series as primary students will enjoy this book.

Isobel is a very likeable character; she's honest, funny, gutsy and original. I sympathized with her plight from the first page; her mom marries someone she's known for only a few months and uproots Isobel in her final year of high school to  live in a run down mansion which has all kinds of grisly rumors associated with it. Girls have disappeared after announcing that they were going to visit the house, a crazy woman was locked up in the attic, and her step father's first wife and child died in a boating accident in the nearby waters. When Isobel starts looking a bit deeper into the mystery surrounding these events, she finds some information that could lead her into serious trouble. I'd recommend this to mystery lovers who enjoy some lightheartedness in their stories. The book does contain some profanity, so if you're sensitive to language, you've been warned.