The Clique Summer Collection: Alicia

Title: Alicia

Author: Lisi Harrison

Pages: 112

Poppy, June 2008

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Recommended to: Tweens and teens, ages 12-14

Rating: A-

Heads up for a spoiler! If you haven't checked out Alicia, read no further!

Olé! Alicia Rivera, of the Westchester, New York, Pretty Committee, is headed to sunny Barcelona, Spain this summer to spend time with her hawt Spanish relatives; avoid her thieving, lying cousin Nina; and become a Euro-cool Spalpha (Spanish alpha) that will make Massie green with envy. After this summer, no one will dare call Alicia fake Spanish anymore! Lucky for her, a perfect opportunity to become a Spalpha appears when super-famous Spanish pop star ¡i! announces he's looking for a "real Spanish beauty" to guest-star in his latest music video. Too bad that Alicia will have to compete against her gorgeous European cousins for the position...But when Alicia and Nina accidentally wreck a Spanish heirloom, they're stuck with a job as a maid (complete with dis-gusting ewniforms) at the hotel where ¡i! is shooting his video, the same place where Alicia's two older cousins (who weren't supposed to ditch her with nasty Nina) get to lounge around in gold bikinis by the pool. In between doing laundry, cleaning the hotel's legendary peacock pen, picking up dirty towels from the poolside cabanas, and being ordered around by her short, stout, and demanding new boss's orders, Alicia realizes that her future as a Spalpha is looking pretty bleak...Until she and Nina team up (gasp!) to take down the twins and pursue Spanish stardom. Maybe this summer won't be so bad after all...

   I really enjoyed Alicia, which is, for those of you out there who aren't readers of The Clique series, the third book in the summer collection. It had plenty of color, generous descriptions, realistic characters, and a throughly enjoyable plot. I loved getting into Alicia's head, all of the new Spanish clique lingo, the new characters (the twins were probably my favorites-their characteristics were so well-developed), and especially how [spoiler] Nina and Alicia, enemies ever since the fourth book (Invasion of the Boy Snatchers), when Nina steals the Pretty Committee's crushes, finally team up against the twins, and (sigh) get along. All in all, I felt like while I was reading the breezy, fast-paced 112 pages, I was actually in Spain with Alicia, getting frustrated over a pointless summer job and let down when she thought that she didn't have Spalpha potential. I ah-dored this Clique book (Lisi Harrison is on a roll!), but Dylan would still have to be my favorite, with Alicia in a close second place.