Review - New Girl by Paige Harbison

Author - Paige Harbison
Publisher - Harlequin Teen
Release Date - January 31st, 2012, 304 Pages

They call me 'New Girl'...

Ever since I arrived at exclusive, prestigious Manderly Academy, that’s who I am. New girl. Unknown. But not unnoticed—because of her.

Becca Normandy—that’s the name on everyone’s lips. The girl whose picture I see everywhere. The girl I can’t compare to. I mean, her going missing is the only reason a spot opened up for me at the academy. And everyone stares at me like it’s my fault.

Except for Max Holloway—the boy whose name shouldn’t be spoken. At least, not by me. Everyone thinks of him as Becca’s boyfriend but she’s gone, and here I am, replacing her. I wish it were that easy. Sometimes, when I think of Max, I can imagine how Becca’s life was so much better than mine could ever be.

And maybe she’s still out there, waiting to take it back.

             *A copy was provided from HarlequinTeen through NetGalley for honest review*

New Girl grabbed me from the beginning and it was hard to put down. I could easily relate to the main character living in Florida her whole life then packing up and heading up to New Hampshire where she didn’t know anyone, would be in a complete 180 of what she is use to, and doing it all by herself. I live in Florida and I complain when it gets below 70, can I imagine going up north during the winter…sure, would I ever do it...no!

I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn’t even notice that I didn’t know the main characters name. I was so use to her being referred to as “New Girl” that it didn’t dawn on me until the ending when her name is called out. And, no I’m not spilling you’ll have to read it yourself to find out what “New Girls” name is. So for this review since I don’t want to spoil anything, even if it’s just a name, I will refer to the main character as it was in the book, New Girl.

New girl isn’t shipped off to Manderly Academy for being bad, rebellious, or any of the other stuff I’m use to reading about. She actually drooled over going to this school when she was 13, there was finally an opening and her parents got her in. Leaving all her friends and family behind in FL to finish high school at this prestige school, sounds pretty simple right, well things for New Girl were far from simple. When she shows up her roommate, Dana, is far from nice or remotely friendly towards her. We find that new girl has taken the spot of the missing student, Becca Normandy.

We are taken from both New Girl and Becca’s views which was very refreshing to get to see what was going on with Becca to make things so hard on New Girl. Becca’s character was something else! There were times that I just wanted to slap the living day lights out of Dana for being the way that she was to new girl. Becca has undoubtedly changed the lives of everyone that she came across while she was at Manderly. We get to see the struggles that new girl has to go through with being the shadow of the girl that has went missing. She is faced with the stress of not only being the new girl but no one ever, except in the end, calling her by her first name. She sees the changes that are made in everyone and what losing someone, even if you don’t really know who they are, can do to one or a whole body of students.

I found often that my heart was aching for New Girl having to deal with what she was going through, the thoughts that she was beginning to think, but in the end I had a smile on my face. There was a bit of a romance in this however it’s hard to explain without spoiling anything. But, I can tell you that this was something that I really enjoyed and will be recommending to others!

-Shellie