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THE CLIQUE Summer Collection Series
by Lisi Harrison
Titles in Order of Publication:
 MASSIE: The Clique Summer Collection #1
Lisi Harrison
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
Fiction
ISBN: 9780316027519
144 pages
While trying to put seventh grade behind her --- and with her Pretty Committee friends spending their vacations elsewhere --- Massie Block has big summer plans of her own. As team captain of the Galwaugh Goddesses (aka the Galwaugh Girls) at the uber-exclusive Westchester sleepaway riding camp, Massie will do whatever it takes to come out on top. At stake: winning the sixth consecutive Galwaugh Farms Jump and Canter Competition.
To ensure victory --- and garner a cover shot on Horse & Rider magazine --- Massie comes up with a solution and bends the rules to the breaking point. But things get sticky after Massie’s actions embarrass one of her teammates, and her plans slide downhill fast. After Massie’s trick is upended, she is expelled from the prestigious riding school and sent home in disgrace.
Back at her parents’ summer estate in Southampton, New York, she expects to find comfort in the form of sympathy and lots of retail therapy (aka shopping). But she is shocked by her parents’ reaction. Rather than taking her side, they ground her. They also cancel her credit cards until she can find a way to reimburse them for the money they lost paying for the expensive camp. Massie realizes her parents are serious, and she must use her wits to find a way to earn enough money to repay them and get her credit cards reinstated.
Her solution? Find a summer job that will earn her lots of money, but a job that’s fun --- more of a hobby than work. In Massie’s words, a jobby. After she reads an ad for Be Pretty Cosmetics, she finds what she thinks is the perfect jobby. She embarks on a journey to transform wealthy plain Janes into Be Pretty gorgeous girls by selling them expensive cosmetics and beauty products.
Can Massie survive the summer with her jobby? Will she regain her parents’ trust and respect? And will she ever get her credit cards back again? But more importantly, will she be able to get her hands on a pair of impossible-to-find, gold-framed D&G sunglasses?
In the designer-label, shop-till-you-drop world of Massie Block, she is the center of the universe. Like Massie, the first installment in The Clique Summer Collection is as shallow as the children’s section of a swimming pool, but it's also wildly entertaining and wicked fun.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt. (dvolkenannt@charter.net)
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 DYLAN: The Clique Summer Collection #2
Lisi Harrison
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
Fiction
ISBN: 9780316035651
144 pages
Pretty Committee member Dylan Marvil accompanies her TV-host mother on a private jet to an extravagant spa and tennis club in Hawaii in hopes of making a fresh start. She wants to put the heartache of being dumped behind her, relax in the spa, lounge on the beach and feast on rich tropical desserts --- while her mom is busy preparing for the “interview of the season” with hot-tempered tennis superstar and bad-girl Svetlana Slootskyia.
After checking in to the luxurious resort, Dylan and her mother head for the resort’s boutique to “go native” and pick out some new clothes to wear at the Aloha Open VIP Party. Dylan --- who favors dark colors, especially black, to flatter her size-four (make that size-six) figure --- is not pleased with the wardrobe selection. She tells her mom she feels like she’s been dropped into a “floral-scented snow globe” because everything there is white, which is the customary color for anyone attending the tennis events.
While looking for an appropriate outfit, Dylan melts at the sight of tanned and handsome J.T. Daley, whose father owns the resort. When she actually meets him, Dylan can barely control her burping. J.T. is a tennis-obsessed “hawtie” who is immediately impressed when he finds out that Dylan’s mom is going to be interviewing Svetlana.
At the VIP party, to impress J.T. even more, Dylan tells him she also loves tennis, which is about as true as her being a size four and not having a burping problem. After hearing this, J.T. invites her to his family’s box seats at a tennis match that will be held three days later.
Dylan quickly realizes she has to learn how to master the game of tennis in three days, or J.T. will know she’s lying. She tries to come up with a plan to get the hot-tempered Svetlana to teach her to play tennis well enough to impress J.T. Can Dylan convince Svetlana to help her become an ace, or will her quest to win over J.T. end up out of bounds?
DYLAN is the second of five books that shine a spotlight on the summers of the Pretty Committee members. It is a breezy and light-hearted novel with an important message about knowing ourselves and being comfortable with who we are.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt. (dvolkenannt@charter.net)
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ALICIA: The Clique Summer Collection #3
Lisi Harrison
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
Fiction
ISBN: 9780316027533
144 pages
When Alicia arrives in Barcelona, Spain, she is swept away with the sights, sounds and smells of her mother’s native land. In the airport terminal, her model-gorgeous older twin cousins, Celia and Isobel, greet her enthusiastically, and she is genuinely happy to see them. But her 13-year-old cousin Nina, whose previous visit to America created huge problems with Alicia and her Pretty Committee friends, is not so enthusiastic --- and is not a welcome sight.
While in Spain, Alicia hopes to avoid Nina as much as possible. She looks forward to spending her summer shopping, clubbing and traipsing around with Celia and Isobel. She’s even more excited when she reads an airport billboard announcing a competition to discover a “real Spanish beauty” to star in a music video. Alicia’s mother is Spanish. Alicia is a good dancer and (she has to admit to herself) a beauty.
But being half-Spanish and half-American, Alicia doesn’t seem totally comfortable in either culture. She hopes that being cast in the video will improve her status back home with Massie and the other Pretty Committee members; maybe Massie will even stop calling her Fannish (fake Spanish).
While trying to play the role of a real Spanish beauty, Alicia does her best to hide the fact that she’s an American, especially when a fair-skinned British teenage boy strikes up a conversation with her in English. And cousin Nina is doing her best to ruin things as well. She shatters Alicia’s self-confidence when she tells her that Celia and Isobel are just using her so they can wear her American designer-label wardrobe.
Hurt and angry, Alicia strikes back after noticing Nina wearing earrings that she stole from Alicia during her last visit to America. When the two teenagers get into a public scrap at a landmark hotel, things quickly get out of hand and they destroy an expensive statue. After Alicia’s parents refuse to send a check to bail her out, she and Nina must work as maids to pay for the damages.
Instead of cleaning up on the competition, Alicia finds herself cleaning other peoples’ towels. Can her Spanish vacation be rescued? And how will she pay for all the damage she has caused?
ALICIA is the third of five slim books about the members of the Pretty Committee. While the tone of the first three installments is playful and breezy, each one delivers a helpful and encouraging message for teenage girls. Alicia’s story is as light and fluffy as cotton candy --- a welcome summer treat. Her message is that things aren’t always what they seem, and sometimes fun and friends can be found when you least expect them.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt (dvolkenannt@charter.net)
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KRISTEN: The Clique Summer Collection #4
Lisi Harrison
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
Fiction
ISBN: 9780316027526
144 pages
As a member of the exclusive Pretty Committee clique, Kristen Gregory is popular (times 10), stylish, snobby, fake-rich and insecure. But she has a secret that even her PC friends don’t know. Her biggest secret is also her salvation and a source of joy. Kristen belongs to the Witty Committee, a group of intellectually gifted students who assemble via their PCs and role play as the gifted person they admire most. With her Witty Committee friends, whose motto is “BOB - brains over beauty,” Kristen is smart, loyal, proud and confident.
While her PC friends have taken flight for the summer, Kristen stays in Westchester, New York, where she lands a job tutoring Ripple Baxter to earn eighth-grade wardrobe money. Kristen begins tutoring Ripple in math, but the nine-year-old has other plans. Ripple is enthralled with PC Alpha Massie Block and connives to use Kristen to teach her how to become an OCD-Diva and Massie clone. Ripple is so obsessed with Massie that she insists everyone call her “Rassie.”
After Kristen catches on to Ripple’s scam and realizes her tutoring job with Ripple is more babysitting than teaching math, she is ready to call it quits --- until she meets Dune, Ripple’s 13-year-old brother, whose blond hair is “the color of Baked Lays.” Kristen turns the tables and uses Ripple to find out how to impress Dune, but things don’t go according to plan. When Kristen shows up at the Gray Acres Skate Park (GAS) dressed like a skater, Dune and his skater friends are the opposite of impressed. Then there’s Skye Hamilton, the eighth-grade Alpha and member of the Westchester Country Club, who is also crushing on Dune.
When Kristen is caught trespassing at the Westchester Country Club, she gets in trouble --- big trouble. And after Dune crushes back on Skye rather than on her, Kristen becomes depressed in a way that makes “Victoria Beckham look cheerful.”
To resolve her “crush conflict” Kristen (aka Cleopatra) contacts her role-playing Witty Committee friends for advice. Can Einstein (aka Layne), Bill Gates (aka Danh), Oprah (aka Rachel) and Shakespeare (aka Aimee) come up with a solution? Here’s a hint: Are Bill Gates and Oprah rich?
KRISTEN is the fourth of five novellas about members of the Pretty Committee. Each book is a light-hearted and fun-to-read page-turner with sound advice for teenage girls. The message from KRISTEN, is, in her own words, “hold on to your pride and own who you are.” No wonder Kristen is not only a member of the Pretty Committee but also of the Witty Committee.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt (dvolkenannt@charter.net)
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CLAIRE: The Clique Summer Collection #5
Lisi Harrison
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
Fiction
ISBN: 9780316027502
144 pages
Back in Orlando for summer break, Claire's once comfortable and comforting world seems different --- almost like stepping into a time warp on a foreign shore. In the land of sunshine and bright colors, she works odd jobs for her younger brother Todd (owner of T-Odd Jobs, Inc.) to earn money for a back-to-school wardrobe that will pass the "Massie seal of approval." As if walking dogs, cleaning pools and washing cars aren't humiliating enough, she finds herself working up a sweat riding around on her old Powerpuff Girls bike.
After being apart for a year from her Florida best friends (FBFFs) --- Sarah, Mandy and Sari --- Claire realizes they haven't changed, except maybe for Mandy, who now wants to be called Amandy. The trio teases Claire about how she has changed, and not for the better. Deep down, Claire realizes she has changed, but she likes the new Claire. She doesn't want to offend Sarah, Amandy and Sari (SAC), so she tries to conceal her true feelings and emotions while caught between two cultures and two sets of friends.
Claire tries to reconnect with SAC by wardrobe shopping with them at the Dress Barn, all the while wondering what Massie would think. Fashion, beauty and style matters that a year ago Claire would not have questioned now bother her. She notices how SAC favor quantity over quality. Clothing texture or garish patterns don't seem to be an issue with them, and they still wear overly bright colors, which now look unfashionable to Claire. She tries to conceal her disapproval and even offers what she believes are helpful suggestions for SAC as they prepare for Kissimmee's much anticipated Miss Kiss pageant. But after a surprise package arrives at the Lyons's "estate" and an unexpected visitor shows up at their doorstep, Claire's friendship and loyalty are put to the test.
CLAIRE is the final installment in a five-part series of novellas, each one about a member of the Pretty Committee. Each story is a fresh and fun-to-read page turner with real-world advice for teenage girls. CLAIRE's message is one of fairness, loyalty and honesty --- and the true meaning of friendship.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt (dvolkenannt@charter.net)
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