Book Review: The Pretty App by Katie Sise

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The Pretty App
App #2
Author: Katie Sise
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: April 14th 2015
Review Source: Balzer + Bray

Poor Blake Dawkins! She's rich, she's gorgeous, and she's the queen bee of Harrison High. The girls want to be her; the boys want to—okay, enough said. But it turns out Blake’s life is not so perfect—just talk to her dad, who constantly reminds her that she's not up to par, or to her ex-bff, Audrey, who doesn't even look her in the eye.

Then Harrison—and every other high school in America—becomes obsessed with posting selfies on the ubiquitous Pretty App. Next: Leo, an adorable transfer student, arrives at Harrison and begins to show Blake that maybe being a queen bee doesn't mean being a queen bitch. And though Audrey suspects somebody’s playing foul, Blake finds herself catapulted to internet fame after being voted one of the prettiest girls in the country. She's whisked away to star in a reality show—in Hollywood, on live TV. But she doesn’t know who to trust. Because everybody on the show wants to win.

And nobody is there to make friends.

The Boyfriend App author Katie Sise spins another irresistible tale of technology, secrets, and big-time romance in this story of what it takes to be #trulybeautiful.

Sometimes, beauty is a curse. This is how Blake feels, well at times. She knows everyone thinks she’s just a beauty, with no brain. She uses her beauty to manipulate the power over her high school classmates. Yet, at home… she’s just there, to pose as the perfect and beautiful daughter of a politico father. This is all she is to her father, a perfect image. Doesn’t matter her beliefs or what relationships she breaks, if her father tells her something, she must obey.

As a new app is invented, The Pretty App, one that that allows users to upload pictures to later be rated by others, Blake enters the competition. She knows she has the chance to win as the most prettiest in high school. But things are not that easy. She falls for the new geeky guy that challenges, makes her be better, to be herself. Things get complicated. This perfect daughter ends isn’t perfect after. But there will be consequences.

The Pretty App is a good sequel to The Boyfriend App. Although it can be read as a standalone. Blake goes through a life lesson and it helps reader realize that no matter how perfect one tries to be, one will always make mistakes. These mistakes, however, may lead us to a better place.

An easy read with a happy ending, The Pretty App is perfect for rainy days.

Book Review: The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise

The Boyfriend App
App #1
Author: Katie Sise
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 30th 2013
Review Source: Balzer + Bray
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) In The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise, super-smart, somewhat geeky Audrey McCarthy can’t wait to get out of high school. Her father’s death and the transformation of her one-time BFF, Blake Dawkins, into her worst nightmare have her longing for the new start college will bring.

But college takes money. So Audrey decides she has to win the competition for the best app designed by a high schooler—and the $200,000 that comes with it. She develops something she calls the Boyfriend App, and suddenly she’s the talk of the school and getting kissed by the hottest boys around. But can the Boyfriend App bring Audrey true love?

I really loved this book from the beginning to the very end. The book was so true based on today's life with smart phones, computers and Apps. I would have loved to have an app like that for my cell phone when I was in school. It would have helped me find a boyfriend for once and not meet a loser like I always did. Maybe I would have been matched with my high school crush.

Audrey the main character of the story is a super smart geeky girl who just recently had her father pass away and her mother is working at the school as a lunch lady. Well Audrey is having a hard time with being picked on because of her mother working at the school and about her father dying. She use to be best friends with a girl named Blake but they stopped being friends after Audrey's dad died because he use to work for Blake's father and Audrey's father died while he was working for her dad. Well her dad said it was all Audrey's dads fault and that is why he died. So that is why they aren't friends. Well there is this contest in school that if you design a app for your phone and it becomes a hit then you can win a scholarship to be able to go college because she doesn't have the money to go. Well she designs this app for your phone and has guys and girls sign up for it by answering questions and after answering the questions if you are 100 feet from your crush the phone will go off and then you will know that is your crush. 

The funny thing is that some of the guys are getting hooked up with girls that they would never want to be with. Athletes are getting hooked up with Gothic chicks. Well Audrey wanted to sign up for the app but she was hoping she would get hooked up with her all time crush. But after things started happening at school and she realized who her real friends were. Her guy friend Aidan she started to have a crush on and didn't even realize she even would. She just thought of him as a friend. Well through the whole app designing process she finds out about a certain program that was put into the smart phones that all the kids are carrying around the school. Well it helps with peoples hormones and gets guys and girls going if you point your phone at theirs. Well when Audrey figured it out she pointed it at Xander at school one day and they started making out right in the cafeteria. People couldn't believe that was happening. Throughout the whole book Audrey goes on this roller coaster of a life and every turn she makes it either has a problem or things turn out the way she wants them. When I was reading it I thought it was my life that I was living again. I loved it.

If you would like to feel like you are in high school again then I would read this book. It has all the drama in it that you see in High school. It was cool reading about it because it put my hectic life on hold for a little while and let me live like a high schooler again. I wish I was that age again where I didn't have any responsibilities and could do whatever I wanted.