Pretty Crooked

Review Time! My first review post-exam week and I'm feeling pretty good but extremely tired! I haven't had a good nights sleep ( without stress and more than 6 hours for a week) and my brain is fried so I apologise if the review turns out to be choppy. Anyway Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig is a 2012 YA Debut. And thank-you to Becca @ Reading Wishes for the gifted copy! She's such a sweetie!

(Goodreads) Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”-known to everyone as the Glitterati-without them suspecting a thing, is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her-evening the social playing field between the have and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.

But when the cops start investigating the string of burglaries at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could he wind up being the person that Willa trusts most?

The Short Story? - Very cute and very sweet. If you're looking for a novel for pure enjoyment than look no further than Pretty Crooked. Sometimes I forget what YA novels were like before authors introduced vampires, dying family members and teenage depression. Ludwig is bringing back the best of YA and Pretty Crooked is a spectacular debut! Great characters, fluffy plot and a great narrative voice!

The Long Story? - The best way I can describe this novel is YA. It's the very definition of YA, slightly cliched with the expensive school and new girl who doesn't fit in, the new friends who are mean and popular and of course the gorgeous guy! All around, it's very enjoyable and it's a safe read. You can't possibly hate Willa and Pretty Crooked because it's so sweet - this was YA before it got infiltrated by vampires, werewolves and the whatnot. Ludwig is bringing the classic YA scenarios and I'm LOVING IT! I have this fetish with novels about thieves, spies and assassins. Pretty Crooked falls into the thieves section but it's only minor. A wonderfully plotted story, loved the cliff hanger and the romance was so so so cute. Definitely a good beach read, light and fluffy with  a little cheek. Loved it!

Willa was a great protagonist. I would have liked to see an older character for a modern Robin Hood retelling, that way her crimes might have been a little more dangerous and less childish? While I loved the concept of the novel, pairing it with a 15 year old protagonist was a little ehhhhh. Nevertheless, what a sweet girl! Willa is completely adorable and she has a big heart! She definitely also has a sense of humour and good judgement in people. I really wished Ludwig made her just THAT much older. I would have like it better with a 17-year old protagonist because it would have been a little more believable. Aidan was  very cool ( and cute!). He definitely is a charmer but he's no Noah Shaw or Jace Wayland although he did have swoon-worthy scenes! Overall it was a solid characterisation!

In a nutshell Pretty Crooked was a great read! It's manageable read and once you get into it, the pages just fly! It wasn't perfect but I really liked the cute, funny and fluffy nature of the plot. It's been a long time since I've read a YA novel that was JUST FOR FUN. I mean no one died or got a broken heart! Ludwig's debut is definitely worth a checking out! I really did enjoy it!


What's it Worth? - Squeeze into the Budget/ Hand Over the Paycheck


Badass Bookie xx