Title: Model Misfit (Geek Girl #2)
Author: Holly Smale
Published: September, 2013 by Harper Collins
Pages: 386
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Harriet knows that modelling won’t transform you. She knows that being as uniquely odd as a polar bear isn’t necessarily a bad thing (even in a rainforest). And that the average person eats a ton of food a year, though her pregnant stepmother is doing her best to beat this.

What Harriet doesn’t know is where she’s going to fit in once the new baby arrives.

With summer plans ruined, modelling in Japan seems the perfect chance to get as far away from home as possible. But nothing can prepare Harriet for the craziness of Tokyo, her competitive model flatmates and her errant grandmother’s ‘chaperoning’. Or seeing gorgeous Nick everywhere she goes.

Because, this time, Harriet knows what a broken heart feels like.

Can geek girl find her place on the other side of the world or is Harriet lost for good?

Final Thoughts:
Having read and loved Geek Girl a week prior to this, I jumped straight in, ready to lap up another instalment of Harriet Manners, haphazard model-slash-know-it-all and all of the whacky characters that came along with her. However, and I hate having to say this, I think a bit of second-book-syndrome came into play this time. A lot of the crazy antics that her agent, Wilbur, as well as her wannabe-teenage father and lawyer, but loveable, stepmother brought were gone. And that’s just because the characters were. Shipping Harriet off to Japan—while cool—left all of the side characters I’d come to love behind, and so, it felt like the book had lost something…

Title: Geek Girl (Geek Girl #1)
Author: Holly Smale
Published: February, 2013 by Harper Collins
Pages: 378
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Harriet Manners knows a lot of things.

She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a “jiffy” lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn’t quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she’s spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend’s dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.

As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn’t seem to like her any more than the real world did.

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

Final Thoughts:
Prepared to be irritated by a know-it-all character, I went into Geek Girl on the defensive, but Harriet quickly broke me down and had me cracking up page after page. It was seriously freaking hilarious. I think it came from her inane way of blurting out the most random things at perfectly timed intervals, or sometimes constantly. While I may be more inclined towards sarcasm and drier wit, she was simply that hilarious that she even had me on board. Coupled with an abundance of heart, this was one book I just couldn’t let go of. Even during my first time sitting beside the pilot on my employer’s private plane yesterday, I had my head buried in this book rather than looking out the front of the cockpit. Harriet was just so much fun.

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• Geek Girl by Holly Smale (library)
• Shattered by Teri Terry (purchased)
• Tape by Steven Camden (purchased)
• Until I Die by Amy Plum (purchased)
• The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su & Kate Rorick (thanks to Publisher)
• The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (library)
• The Distance Between Us by Kasie West (library)
• The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham (library)
• Soulmates by Holly Bourne (library)

I went to the library Thursday night looking to pick up the copy of The Darkest Minds that my friend, Brittany, had told me to read, but ended up walking out of there with an armful. Hopefully, I actually get time to read them before they’re all due back. That’s always my problem, I see everything I want and snatch them up, then they just sit in a stack beside my desk for the month while I go on reading other books that I’ve ordered online.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of the Lizzie Bennet book. It wasn’t what I was expecting in the mail this week, but it was a nice suprise. I’m going to give it to Joey to do a guest review for me though. He’s actually read Pride and Prejudice so he’ll probably enjoy a lot more than I would.

Lastly, as of about an hour ago, I bought these last three books: Shattered, Tape and If I Die. I even walked a 5km round trip up and down hills to get them. There were big red banners posted in the windows of my local Mary Ryan’s bookstore/cafe announcing a 50% off pre-refurbishment sale that I’d noticed earlier and had me intrigued to check out the normally to-expensive-for-me store. There was more there I could have gotten, I even had them stacked in the crook of my elbow, but I convinced myself to do the right thing and leave them there (as much as it didn’t feel like it). I rewarded myself afterwards with a trip to the anime and manga store (and just browsed!)

Here’s what Joey and I have been reading this week:
Johnson, Mo Boofheads – Aussie YA coming of age story that Joey found.
Perkins, Stephanie Lola and the Boy Next Door – AWESOME! Bring on Isla.
Rowell, Rainbow Attachments – Fun, heartwarming, loved it.

So, what books have you gotten lately? Which books would you recommend I read first? Let me know in the comments.