Customer Reviews

There's a New Name in School (The Ashleys, Book 1)

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Meet the Ashleys, who rule the school and make life miserable for non-SOA (Seal Of Approval) girls. The three of them are gorgeous, wealthy, and have all the best clothing.

This year, the three Ashleys watch one girl step out of her limo looking like a movie star. Lauren has arrived at a new plateau, or so she hopes. Her plan is to infiltrate the Ashleys and then destroy them. With her father's newfound wealth, she's gone from bargain shopper to having a personal shopper. Can her new wealth help her gain access to the school's most exclusive club?

Melissa de la Cruz creates a brand new series that delves into the cliques of junior high and into a world where money is no object. If you've enjoyed the CLIQUE series, you MUST read this book as well.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

Ashleys Behaving Badly

Set in San Francisco, the Ashley Trio runs the school's social scene with attitude and a sense of entitlement.

Ashley Li (Lili) is gifted at whatever she attempts. Early in the book, she refers to herself as "only daughter," but later in the book we learn that she has 3-year-old twin sisters and two older sisters. Rude and selfish, she guards her place in the clique like a little pit bull.

Ashley Alioto (A.A.) so called as to distinguish her from the other Ashleys. A.A. is tall and busty, appearing much older than her 12 years. Less spoiled and snobby as the other Ashleys, A.A. has a good friend and a stepbrother who help keep her priorities straight.

Ashley - the only Ashley called Ashley as she views herself as the top dog. Rude, spoiled and spoonfed a sense of entitlement, this girl will stop at nothing to secure her spot at the top of the social totem pole. She also has a peanut allergy, the one thing that spoils her perfect facade to her peers at large.

Enter Lauren. A rags-to-riches girl whose father hit it big in the TV industry, she lives large and enjoys wealth. Her goal is to take down the Ashleys and infiltrate their clique. After all, they have been treating her like dogmeat since kindergarten, so her turn at bat is due.

Lauren manages to impress the Ashley trio and act a fool in the process. Lili, a diva with a sense of entitlement has hissy fits if someone else wears the same thing she does. She and Queen Ashley take pride in their ruthlessness; they revel in how they made a presidential namesake girl named Kennedy Taylor (good thing her name wasn't Truman Roosevelt, Carter Clinton or Lincoln Ford) transfer because they rebuffed her overtures. Lauren, however is NOT another Kennedy -- she hangs in there despite some shifts in dynamics and let's just say....Ashley to Ashley, Lauren to Lauren. Rather predictable, but entertaining all the same.

I'll be honest...when a friend urged me to pick up The Ashleys, I wasn't expecting anything too special. I'm into all the "teen trash" reads, for both the younger (The Clique) and older (Gossip Girl, The A-List, etc.) sets. So naturally, I didn't think there would be anything too new here, and I was right. Still, the book proved to be okay for yet another attempt at this overdone storyline.
Lauren has been tormented by the Ashleys, the most exclusive clique at Miss Gamble's (who are all named Ashley), since kindergarten. However, when her father's genius idea, YourTV, explodes into the web industry, Lauren's family goes from rags to riches. Armed with a new wardrobe and look, Lauren sets out to get in with the Ashleys, and then destroy them.
The Ashleys, however, aren't quick to accept. Ashley Spencer, the leader and the only member allowed to go by the name Ashley, is especially bent on keeping the Ashleys - her and her friends Lili and A.A. - a threesome. But then Lili decides to shake things up and gives Lauren some advice. When people happen to be at the right place at the right time, Lauren ends up getting a ticket in. The question is, how long will she be able to stick around?
Each character develops their own problems as the story goes on. Although Lauren manages to get into the clique, she's still finding herself on the outside, even though she's supposed to be in. As time progresses, she finds herself forgetting about destroying them - all she wants is to truly be one of them. Meanwhile, Lili tries to cope with parental pressure. At the same time, she has an inner struggle - although she's sick of Ashley getting her way all the time, she also wants to be just like her. A.A. has an online boyfriend (who she's never met in person) whose identity she just can't seem to figure out. Even Ashley herself has some insecurities, although the moments she shows them are very brief.
The ending was predictable, but I guess I didn't expect it to be shocking or anything. There were a few things about the characters that I didn't really like. First, you only got to see Ashley's vulnerability for about two seconds. I would have liked to see more of her portrayed as an actual person, as Lisi Harrison does to Massie Block in The Clique. Second, just when Lili was starting to grow a backbone, she seemed to retreat back into being Ashley's loyal follower. The outcome of A.A.'s meeting with her online boyfriend was also easy to see from a mile away, but like I said, I didn't expect anything less. Last, I didn't like how Lauren dropped her motives entirely to try being accepted by the Ashleys. But there's more to the series, so maybe these problems will end up resolving themselves.
I felt like the book borrowed from The Clique and Mean Girls and mashed it all together, but I guess there aren't really many new ideas anymore, especially in this genre. Overall, it was predictable and nothing too original, but I found it entertaining all the same.
If you're a fan of The Clique, you'll probably like this book. But if you're getting sick of that general genre, you'd probably be best to leave it on the bookshelf. It's nothing too special, but it makes a good light read anyway.

It's a okay book, with a pretty fast paced and interesting story line, but I think that this is just like The Clique, but not as funny and with meaner characters.

The moment her father's website, YourTV, went global, Lauren Page's life changed. No longer is she the outcast scholarship student with frumpy clothing at the prestigious Miss Gamble's Preparatory School for Girls. No, thanks to a new personal shopper and a rather large cash influx, she has a plan for seventh grade: a plan that includes getting even with the three privileged Ashleys who have made her life miserable for seven years. But her plan of infiltrating their clique and extracting revenge might not be as easy as she thought. Because no matter how big her house is, how many jets her dad owns, or how much money her family now has, it will take more than possessions for Lauren to earn the materialistic Ashleys' Seal of Approval.

The Ashleys is hip and fresh, and a wonderfully entertaining book for those girls who are past the children's books but may not yet be ready for some of the more popular YA reads. An intriguing and attention holding story, The Ashleys sheds light on to the privileged world of preteens without being obnoxious or too boastful. Rather than blending the characters together, which happens often within this genre, the author gives each character her own strong voice, which is a refreshing change. Accurate, amusing, and quick witted, The Ashleys is sure to be a crowd pleaser.