Customer Reviews

The Smart One and the Pretty One

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I couldn't even finish it. I got about halfway through and it was a struggle to get that far. The "pretty one" is a lowlife who mooches off her cancer-ridden parents and sister even though she's in her late 20s. The turning point for me was when she screws the guy who's been rude and disrespectful to her and barely even bought her dinner. All while her sister was in the other room listening to the whole thing and stated she was "proud of her" for using a condom?? Who would be proud of that sister? The whole thing was a twisted and made me feel oogy and irritated at a woman my age for being so cheap and easy. Aside from all that, the author is not a very good writer and struggles to maintain a plot, much less make it funny at any point. I returned the book to Target.

Two sisters, living widely disparate lives, come together to support their mother through a medical crisis. Lauren Nickerson, living beyond her means in New York, is the "pretty" one--fashion conscious, obsessed with new clothes, she is on the verge of financial disaster. She flies home to LA to help out while their mother goes through chemotherapy. Smart Ava Nickerson is a lawyer, very conscious of making good financial choices, she hardly ever thinks about fashion, and already lives close to home and has been the conscientious "good" daughter.

When they first meet up in this family crisis, Lauren is worried about her finances and hopes to borrow money from Ava; Ava's response is to hook her up with a credit counselor, and firmly suggests that she not make any purchases except necessities. Frustrated, Lauren vows to get "revenge." So when she discovers an old "contract" between two mothers that "betroths" Ava and the neighbor's son Russell Markowitz, she sets out to stir things up a bit.

What could have been a clichéd story about sibling rivalry and conflict, turns, instead, into a clever, funny, and quite compelling read about how we perceive ourselves as opposed to how others see us, and how sometimes the "right" choices are not necessarily the best ones.

The Smart One and the Pretty One was a quick and completely page-turning story that I thoroughly enjoyed, thus earning five stars from me.

APOOO Rating: 3.5

In The Smart One and the Pretty One, we meet Ava and Lauren Nickerson, two sisters who are completely different from one another. Ava is highly considered the intelligent sister who has her career in order but her personal life, relationship-wise, is pretty dull. Lauren is the free-spirited and beautiful sister who is a shop-a-holic, in a world of debt and never has a problem getting a man.

With the family going through a crisis, Lauren decides to move back to her home state in show of support. While home, she finds a contract created by her parents marrying off Ava to a neighboring family's son, Russell Markowitz. Of course, Lauren being the free-spirited sister decides to do some "matchmaking" with her sister and the long lost neighbor, Russell Markowitz.

Author Claire LaZebnik has written a wonderful story that focuses on the lives of two sisters who love each other dearly but who have their own personal flaws. This is a lovely book that keeps the reader's attention all the while adding in a few laughs here and there. The Smart One and the Pretty One is highly recommended to those looking for a quick and memorable weekend read and who enjoy chick-lit reads.

Reviewed by Chantay W.
APOOO BookClub

When I purchased this book for a trip, I thought it would be a cute 'sisterly' story.

It was.. but it wasn't at the same time. One sister was made out to be almost a prude and the other a total party girl who was irresponsible and no other substance.

The ending felt incomplete and I was left feeling I wasted my time reading the novel.

I love a good sister story and found this one, "The Smart One and the Pretty One," thoroughly enjoyable. It's not a stretch of the imagination to guess we have two interesting young women, one a responsible lawyer, and the other a recently fired spendthrift, each traveling through life on a different path. It's just that during the course of this tale, their paths lead to the same place: home. It's similar to the novel In Her Shoes: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner, however, this is a new pair of sisters with a different set of challenges. The writing is very good and the characters well developed.

The pretty one, Lauren, moves back to her childhood home in LA after a stint in New York for two reasons: She's fired from her job and she learns her mother has breast cancer. Meanwhile, Ava, the smart sister, is still in LA busy with her job as an attorney. They are both beautiful in a Julianna Margulies kind of way, but Lauren has learned to flaunt her beauty with stylish fashions, while Ava hides it by wearing bad shoes and skirts that are too long. It's very clear that they hold their labels closely. This is annoying. BUT, to counter these characteristics, they both have a wonderful sense of humor, a great rapport with one another, and are both very much like their extremely likeable mother, Nancy, who undergoes chemotherapy throughout the story.

We see them deal not only with their mother's cancer treatment, but also with their love lives (or potential love lives), and each learns more about herself and her sister by the last page. Very well done and my favorite of LeZabnik's three novels.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.

I adored this book! I can't say enough good things about it! I knew exactly where Ava was coming from and found myself being eager to see what she did with herself for my own benefit! I really can't think of the last time that I identified with a character in a book so much. I don't dress to impress and hate wearing makeup! And like in the book, my little sister has done my makeup on occasion.

And Lauren, also what a great character. Even though I didn't identify nearly as much with her as I did her sister ,Ava, I saw a bit of my sister in her. Russell was so sweet, I loved him too! These characters were real people to me. (This MUST be made into a movie!)

So besides the fact that I felt like those characters were very real to me, this book was just funny. Your everyday, can't help it funny! That's just who they were. I loved that and found myself laughing often while reading this. Also the whole plot, the idea that people that knew each other as children, but that are now strangers, are thrust together in a variety of situations. It made for some great set-ups and sneaking around on Lauren's part. Ava is so stuck in her ways that Lauren has to trick her into being social with anyone other then their family.

My only unfulfilled wish for this book would have been to see the ending drawn out a bit more, maybe just 20-40 more pages. Without giving away anything, I wanted to hear Russell's thoughts a bit more on a particular character.

Ava and Lauren are two modern sisters who look pretty much alike but see the world in completely different ways.

Ava, the older sister, is a lawyer and the responsible daughter. She dresses professionally but plainly with as little fuss and bother as possible. Lauren on the other hand, makes her living buying clothing for retail stores and is a little bit of a clotheshorse. When Lauren really racks in the debt and can't continue to pay her bills AND her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer she decides to pack it in and come home.

Ava helps Lauren sort out her bills and Lauren helps Ava sort out her love life but neither sister is particularly gracious about the help she is receiving. Ava makes Lauren sign a contract stating how Lauren won't buy anything unnecessary for the next six months. Lauren decides to get even when she finds a betrothal contract their parents jokingly made several years ago and sets Ava up with a man the she is unknowingly engaged to.

This sounds like a fairly stereotypical plotline but the author's ability to describe the situations and the easy, witty dialogue between not just the sisters, but all the characters makes this novel stand out from all the others. I really enjoyed this book.

Very cute story and exactly what I needed when I was looking for some sappiness. If you're looking for the next great American novel, this is not it. But for some mindless entertainment while you're laying by the pool, look no further!

I was really thrilled to receive a copy of The Smart One and the Pretty One to review. As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I adore chick lit. I'm happy to say that this book was fun and thoroughly enjoyable.

At its core, The Smart One and the Pretty One is about sisters. Having a sister myself, I understand the complicated relationship that ensues: there's a lot of bickering and plenty of love/hate. But in the end, you are deeply connected; there is a bond there that cannot be broken. My sister and I are much closer now than we used to be, but even back when we argued much more than we laughed, I always knew I could cry on her shoulder. The author captures this dimension of a sisterly relationship perfectly in her book.

I also love the title: The Smart One and the Pretty One. I'm not sure about other sisters, but I can tell you for a fact that in my experience, it is apt. Not that one is necessarily much smarter and the other is much prettier - it's much more dependent on personality traits. I'm generally the smart one, and my sister the pretty one, but that's not because my sister is dim (she's actually in medical school - not dim at all) or I'm horribly disfigured. It's more that she has the fun, outgoing personality (much like Lauren) and I've always been a bit more serious in my life outlook (Ava). In this book, it really is nice to see the way these two stereotypes change shape, and the way Ava slowly transforms into "the pretty one." I really enjoyed the way it rang true: as you become older, the reasons these generalizations applied fade away, but the stereotypes are still there.

LaZebnik also makes the men in her book very complicated, which seems to be a rarity in chick lit these days. Usually the women are multilayered, but the men are one-dimensional - not true for this book. Daniel and Russell are both complicated characters, and it was fun to slowly peel back their layers through the book to look at their underlying motives for the confusing and sometimes distasteful ways they acted.

In short, I would recommend The Smart One and the Pretty One to anyone who (1) likes chick lit or (2) has a sister. If, like me, you fall in both of those categories, don't hesitate to pick up this book!

This book was extremely slow...not overly funny, not overly entertaining. It was a struggle to get through.