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Kindle Price: $2.99
Official Rating: 3/5
“The high school play is in two months and senior Wren Barlow just became director. Wren still isn’t over the fact that she got stiffed as a stagehand instead of the lead role that she totally deserved. Now she is in charge of rehearsals, costumes, navigating around cast member hookups and managing the real life drama at home.
The principal counts on her to succeed because tickets have been sold and the money has been spent. But when he drops a gorgeous bad boy on her and wants him to help the play for extra credit, she falls hard for someone she knows she can’t date. With everything spinning out of control, the mysterious and secretive detention king named Derek has a few tricks up his sleeve and wants to help—too bad Wren is scared to give him a chance to prove himself.”
My Review:
This was such a cute romance and I loved it. There were some things I didn’t like, but I still I adored Understudy.
Wren Barlow, truly an amusing and engaging character. Young wrote her as a realistic and relatable teenager and I was impressed. Instead of making Wren “not like other girls.” or “better than the rest.” or giving Wren the usual “I’m not fat, but when I look in the mirror…” in order to make her somewhat relatable. Wren was just Wren and that’s all she needed to be in order to be a great character. Truth be told, one of my favorite lines from Wren was, “I’m not fat,” I say confidently, because I know I’m not fat.” I cannot begin to explain how beautiful of a declaration it was. The confidence, the self-pride, the self-respect…it was wonderful to read and I highly respect Young for giving Wren that type of attitude. I also appreciated that Young didn’t make Wren automatically not believe or have heard the rumors or the lies that spread around her school. It just isn’t realistic, you’re definitely going to hear and possibly believe the rumors that fly around in school. I liked that even though she pretended to not have heard them, she wasn’t very good at lying nor was it done in a way to impress Derek. It was just good ole’ teenage nerves. Unfortunately, Wren wasn’t a perfect character. When Derek specifically tells her that he cannot under no circumstances tell her a secret that he has a right to keep, she completely loses it. I know that seeing your crush text someone whose contact name is “Lexie <3” is very incriminating, but where is the trust? Instead of just waiting for him to be ready to tell her what it is, Wren starts to treat him horribly. He even asks her why she’s treating him with such disdain and she recognizes that he’s hurt, but just continues to do so. It was terrible and I wish Wren had handled it better. However, that is who Wren is and if there’s ever another book, it’s something she can work on. Another issue, one that absolutely made me uncomfortable with Wren’s priorities: Wren’s best friend Margot, who I assume is seventeen like Wren, is dating a twenty-one year old man in college. And instead of expressing concern or wanting to know who Jordan (the twenty-one year old) is, Wren’s response is: “Margot’s next two weeks of dashing off after rehearsal to visit Jordan turns out to be a great thing. It means I get to hang out with Derek after school and not have to make up lies as to why I can’t sit on Margot’s pillowtop mattress and watch reruns of Supernatural with her.” That’s called being a terrible friend. You would rather casually shrug off the fact that your “best friend” is going up to visit someone in college just because you want to hangout with Derek without lying to her? That’s terrible judgement, I feel bad for Margot.
Between Reality 