Look
Models and their unique life has always been a fascination of mine and I love watching programs about the real lives of models - standing in the freezing cold, being made to wear ridiculous outfits, running to go to the many 'go sees' that they have booked, dealing with difficult designers, it seems like a really hectic life. So I was really pleased when The Look dropped through my door and I got to read about the life of a young model too. The Look didn't gloss over the difficulty of being a model, I mean I'm no expert but everything seemed to be perfect, right down the difficult photographer! She was pretty brave throughout, considering the team were like, 'Okay, I'm just going to stick you in this tiny thong and dump you in a bath of rubber snakes now.' Ted is a great character and it was a lot of fun following her as she grew up and realised what she wnated to do in life. It took her a while though, even though it was pretty obvious to probably everyone else who read this! She also required a lot of pushiing from Ava, who was a great addition to the story. I was originally worried that the author might have just thrown in a sister-is-a-cancer-patient story in the help bulk the story up and make people want to read it but no, she adds a lot to the story and really helps the story move along too. It wouldn;t have been fun at all without her!
The cancer side of it added a lot of compulsive reading, in my opinion. I wanted to know that Ava would be alright and if she and Jesse would still be together after everything had happened. The sudden makeovers were actually a lot of fun to read about, especially waiting to find out their parent's reactions! I loved the descriptions of the photos that Ted took of Ava, as I could easily get a solid picture in my head of what the pictures looked like.
This story has a great contemporary, summery feel to it all the way through and it;s get everything - happiness, sadness, hope, romance, art projects (you can't have a contemporary without an art project, it's against the rules). A book to pick up and not put down until you've devoured every page.