The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker

Release Date: January 2nd, 2012
Publisher: Poppy
Pages: 375
Age Group: 13-15
Recommended for: Readers who enjoyed The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate or Sharon Creech.
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Alecia Whitaker's 'The Queen of Kentucky' is sweet like the quenching splash of lemonade on a hot summer day. But for Ricky Jo (or Erika, if you must) summer is dry and gone and the school year is here for her to repaint herself as popular, likeable, and looked up to. Ricky Jo, country and devout Catholic girl, is gone: here comes Erika, beautiful, smart, and stylish.

Who was gonna tell her that molding herself into a different person was going to be so dang hard???

I LOVE Ricky Jo. Sure, she can be mean sometimes, insenstive, and absolutely horrid, but I love seeing characters stumble into mistake. That just makes me feel so, well, 'I told you so' inside. It is a wonderful feeling, something that makes me like the characters even more, which is the weirdest thing.

The plot, of course, wasn't the most original. But for me, this kind of thing can be reused over and over again without me getting bored. But I can't say the same for some other people.

The cover. Oh, the lovely cover. Recently, you see these raunchy covers with half naked people on them or just plain faces with scary looking eyes. But nope-The Queen of Kentucky takes art and turns it into a yellow, vintage style piece of work that portrays the novel so well.

Hey, country stories might not be your thing-but if you haven't read The Queen of Kentucky, I recommend it...NOW. Like, right this second. Because you are missing out on some good, cute fluff.