Review: Paper or Plastic - Vivi Barnes

 

Review: Paper or Plastic - Vivi Barnes - February 2015

Alexis is sick of being the odd one out in her family, the one that never gets any attention as all her mother's focus seems to be on her younger sister Rory aka Aurora's beauty pageants and the world of debutantes which Alexis definitely isn't. She is the jock of the family and loves her softball but of course, according to her mother Softballers do not make money or have careers. One day while out with her friend Courtney, Alexis decides to shoplift a tube of lipstick. Unfortunately the pair end up getting caught, and Alexis's parents called. The store owner strikes up a deal with Alexis's mother either have this on her daughter's permanent record or Alexis can work in the store for the summer. Her mother chooses the latter for her, which sucks as there goes her summer plans and softball camp. Alexis turns up for her first day at Smartmart which reading this book reminded me of a mixture between Walmart and the CVS Pharmacies. All is destined to go well , when she spots a cutie assistant manager called Grayson. Though, Grayson isn't who Alexis assumes he is - his real name is Noah Grayson and he is the guy who was a loner in their school and got Courtney's boyfriend and her best friend Bryce - the star played kicked off the team and suspended. Everyone hates Noah and if Alexis is seen liking him or even being seen friendly, she is committing social suicide and not something you want to do when your'e in high school. 

Seems like Alexis is in for one crazy summer but will she discover that actually working at SmartMart might have been the best thing she did ? Also I loved Alexis's grandmother, though sad - she reminded me of Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum novels. 

Parts of this book also made me laugh and reminisce my days when I worked on Checkout at Pak N Save as a Checkout Operator and the lovely, weird and wacky customers we had come through , not to mention the grumpy and rude ones or the ones that come through the 12 or less express checkout with 50+ items.

If you are looking for a cute summer read or winter, depending where you are in the world - then Paper or Plastic is the book for you.