The Trouble with Flirting

Title: The Trouble With Flirting
Author: Rachel Morgan
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating: 4/5
Cover: 2/10

"Labelled a nerd for most of high school, Livi sees her first year of university as a chance to redefine herself. She can finally enter the popular crowd and maybe even land herself a super hot boyfriend. But Livi’s about to discover that the price of popularity may be more than she’s willing to pay, and that what—and who—she wants most has always been right in front of her."

Very cute, very sweet, if a little predictable.

Livi was a fun character, and, although her desperation to be popular kind of annoyed me - why, people, why?? - it was also kind of nice to see her come to her senses. In her defence, though, Jackson had seemed like a pretty okay guy to start with, so...
The big surprise came towards the end of the book, but I liked how Morgan had Livi deal with it - level-headed and mature. Very nice. I know the next book is about Andi, and I'm glad because I really want to know more about her, and the premise sounds interesting.

I loved the character developments in Allegra, but I wish we'd gotten to see more of her 'true self' during this book; there's potential there for a very interesting story. The one thing that was sorely missing was Sarah. Livi's emails to her didn't really cut it; I wanted Sarah's answers, rather than have to keep guessing, and it annoyed me that we only saw her side of the conversation when it was the end and she was giving Livi advice about the guy. That could have been fleshed out so much more and it made me sad that it wasn't.

But otherwise, a great novel with quirky characters and a swoon-worthy love interest.

PS: I've just realised why it took me so long to actually understand that this took place in South Africa: that cover made it seem like blooming California!