Pretty in Pink meets Groundhog Day in this contemporary YA romance.
Andie is the type of girl who always comes up with the perfect thing to say…after it’s too late to say it. She’s addicted to romance movies—okay, all movies—but has yet to experience her first kiss. After a move to Punxsutawney, PA, for her senior year, she gets caught in an endless loop of her first day at her new school, reliving those 24 hours again and again.
Convinced the curse will be broken when she meets her true love, Andie embarks on a mission: infiltrating the various cliques to find the one boy who can break the spell. What she discovers along the way is that people who seem completely different can often share the very same hopes, dreams, and hang-ups. And that even a day that has been lived over and over can be filled with unexpected connections and plenty of happy endings.
Pretty in Punxsutawney pays homage to some of the best loved teen movies of the 1980s; not just Pretty in Pink — but classics like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, and Sixteen Candles are all featured in some way.
The book is charming, and the overall message is about how you can’t judge people based on the surface — that appearances and stereotypes can be deceiving.
That said, even if the Pretty in Pink references weren’t obvious enough (and I’m not sure how well today’s teens will be versed in ’80s teen comedies), the plot is extremely predictable. Not that I was expecting any major plot twists for a book like this — but it was very obvious where things were going from the first chapter. And while the book still had some cute moments, the predictability made the overall reading experience a little boring for me. There weren’t any surprises, and the cute moments weren’t remarkable enough to make up for it for me.
Pretty in Punxsutawney is a great choice though if you’re looking for an easy, clean YA romance. Look for it in stores January 15th.
Novel Novice 
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