Review: Geek Magnet

Title: Geek Magnet

Author: Kieran Scott

From GoodReads, "Everyone loves KJ Miller, especially the geeks. She's pretty, smart, and super nice to everyone, which has made her the geek pied piper of Washington High. If only Cameron, the star of the basketball team, would follow her around and worship her the way her dorky entourage does.

As the stage manager of the spring musical, Grease, KJ has to deal with a few geeks, but she also gets to hang out with Tama, queen of the popular crowd and star of the play. Tama has the solution to all of KJ's problems: get cruel. After all, the nice girl never gets the guy. Can KJ actually pull off a transformation into a mean girl?"

Have you ever met a girl that was too nice? Well, that's KJ Miller. She is popular in school, but not with the crowd that she would like. For some reason, geeky guys are just drawn to her. More than anything KJ wants to be popular with the right crowd and get the attention of her crush, Cameron.

I really liked the character of KJ mainly because I can think of a lot of teenagers who are just like her. KJ's life isn't what it's cracked up to be, she has a father who is an alcoholic and a mother who doesn't know how to deal with it, so she pretends there isn't a problem. With all of the family drama that KJ has, she still manages to be a decent student and involved in school activities, in this case drama. KJ often worries more about herself than others, which causes rifts in her relationships. To me, that's just a typical day in high school.

The story moved along at a quick pace and although predictable at times, was enjoyable reading. KJ's interactions with her family were realistic and you could feel KJ's embarrassment with her father's antics. The scenes at the theater rehearsal's were appealing to me because I'm a musical theater geek myself and I could relate to KJ's fear of being on-stage and her comfort being the stage manager.

I thought this was the first book I had ever read by Kieran Scott, but Kieran also works under the pen name of Kate Brian. I've read several of Brian's novels. I really like her writing style, which is very conversational and gave me the feeling that I was living KJ's life. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in theater, loves Grease, likes romance, and doesn't mind a strong female character.