25 ROSES.

25 ROSES by STEPHANIE FARIS.

SOURCE: Received for review from the author. 25 Roses is due to be released January (February in the UK) 2015. An Advanced Reading Copy all quotes were published with the permission of the author.

BACK COVER BLURB: Mia Hartley has always lived in the shadow of her perfect older sister, Kellie, who can do no wrong. And even though Mia has her own BFF's, she feels overshadowed by the super-popular girls at school, a clique led by queen bee Kaylee Hopper.

Mia finally has a chance to get noticed when it comes time for the student council chocolate rose sale. Every year students buy roses for their crushes and friends, and the grade that sells the most roses wins bragging rights and a fun prize. And every year the same group of people gets most of the roses, making everyone else feel left out. However, Mia is in charge of selling the roses this year for the seventh grade - and things are going to change.

With a little creativity, Mia makes sure the kids who usually leave empty-handed suddenly find themselves the object of someone's affection. Soon the school is buzzing with newfound crush statuses - and people finally notice Mia. But her plans start to unravel when she realises that being a secret Cupid is a lot more complicated than she'd ever imagined. Can Mia manage to match hearts and not break them - and find the perfect way to shine?
~ Contains spoiler hi-light to view.

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter One} To: Stanton Middle School 
From: Mia Hartley 
This place could use a real-life Cupid.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 34}: This was Dad, the guy who had told us we couldn't start dating until we were thirty-eight. I was starting to think he might get his wish. With me, anyway.

MY THOUGHTS: Though not a novel that I got into straight away I did find myself slowly but surely engrossed in the life of Mia, BFF, Ashleigh, and BMFF (Best Male Friend Forever if like me you are older than the nine to thirteen year old for which the book is marketed), Alex. I admit I did have my concerns that here was a book predominately aimed at an American audience but with its themes of friendship, sibling rivalry, fitting in and first crushes 25 Roses is also a very universal story.

A lively and innocent tale of discovery and realisations. I'm so pleased that rather than a vacuous story of beautiful/popular girl gets their boy that sent out all of the wrong messages here was a tale of 'average' girls, girls with 'baggy clothes and hair with a bad case of the frizzies', standing out because of their new found confidence all brought about by one girl doing what she thought was the right thing.

With a fun cover that is neither too grown-up nor too childish, characters that I'm sure many will relate to/aspire to be and a plot which includes a bit of a mystery - just who is placing those roses and messages in Mia's locker? -  I'm sure this will prove a hit with many young readers.