Review: Will Work for Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris

Will Work For Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris

Quigley Johnson has, reluctantly, given up the rest of her last year of high school to take part in her best friend Ann's Betterment Plan, which will turn them into the best-dressed, most sought-after, most admired girls at their senior formal. Because - hey - who doesn't want the perfect prom, complete with a dream dress and a devastatingly handsome date?

But the prom costs money - lots of money - and even though the girls could easily have Ann's mom design their dresses (she's only Victoria Parisi, one of the most famous designers in the world), Ann insists that they pay their own way. And that's how Quigley gets stuck making artistic topping masterpieces on frozen pizzas canvases, before becoming a live model for Ms. Parisi's fashion design class, where she meets Zander.

He's cute, and cool, and funny, with a killer design sensibility (even if he can't sketch). But is he too good to be true? And what about David, the hot, talented artist at school, who's also kind of a jerk, but won't leave Quigley alone? And Ann - she started the Betterment Plan to improve Quigley and herself, but it seems like it's ripping their friendship to shreds.

This road to the prom dream may just end in disaster.

Review:

Will Work For Prom Dress was a fun and addicting debut novel that will attract a variety of teenage-readers. The main character, Quigley, was just an ordinary girl dealing with a lot of issues normal high school students are. Prom season was fast approaching and she and her best friend, Anne, are determined to get healthy, raise money for dresses, and find dates.

It was tons of fun reading about the different odd jobs Anne roped Quigley into. The pizza factory and acting stints were interesting to read about and I really felt for Quigley because she always seemed to be stuck with the worst part of the job while Anne always managed to get the easiest. When Anne’s mother gets the girls jobs as models in her design class Quigley finally finds the one place she loves going. I loved reading about Quigley’s experiences at the design class and about the people she meets there.

Each of the characters introduced in Will Work for Prom Dress was well developed and had more to them then met the eye. There were two main guys in this book- Zander and David. David and Quigley were constantly competing with each other about whose art was better and David wasn’t always the nicest guy, but things change when he admits to liking Quigley. Then Zander enters the picture. He was sweet and respected Quigley. Plus his designs were awesome. Although Zander had some secrets.

Anne’s mother had a large role in the story (even more than Quigley’s parents!) and readers got to learn a lot about her as well. She was always there for Quigley and helped her and Anne out of some tough spots. Will Work for Prom Dress contained quite a few important lessons and I loved reading about Anne and Quigley. They were so different yet so alike and their experiences were lots of fun to read about.

Overall, Will Work for Prom Dress was a light hearted and fun debut with lovable characters and an intriguing premise. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more by Aimee Ferris.

Overall: 4.25 out of 5 stars

February 8, 2011/Egmont USA/240 Pages/Young Adult

Source: Publisher (ARC)