Sarah Dessen, my favourite YA author, endorsed this book and it had the sort of format she'd use, so I thought I'd dip in as it was only £2. The title does suggest something slightly more shallow than you actually get, although not much more, and the theme raised by it (somebody suddenly being noticed by people who've never looked twice before) could have been made more explicit in my opinion.
The story itself was harmless enough: a girl goes to the beach as she does every summer and suddenly all these boys she's ever known start taking an interest. She lost her heart long ago to Conrad, the elder of two brothers, but it's the younger brother, Jeremiah, who has spent time with her in recent years. The premise seemed to be she'd have to choose between them.
However, into this mix they through a third boy whose name sort of escapes me right now because he was seriously badly treated by the girl (who willingly goes by the name Belly - short for Isabella: who does that?!). This sort of distracts the whole focus from the Conrad-Jeremiah dilemma and in fact basically phases Jeremiah out altogether which makes the book generally much less interesting: I wanted brother warfare.
Belly (urgh) is supposed to be a likeable girl, I think, and if the author had played up how she's always felt left out by Conrad, Jeremiah and her brother, she might have been more appealing. However, her constant swinging between the two boys (and basically ignoring Jeremiah) is pretty tedious, especially as Conrad is so moody and has never given her any reason to like him.
The story then becomes more serious and throws all of Belly's (urgh) mundane romantic pursuits into stark relief. There are apparently two sequels to this, and I'm partially intrigued, partially repulsed.
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