Review: Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig - Juhina

Title: Pretty Crooked (Pretty Crooked #1)
Author: Elisa Ludwig

Publication date: March 13th, 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Challenges: DAC, Contemporary, A-Z Title

Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)

Source: NetGalley
Format: Digital Arc

Pages: 236

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Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”—known to everyone as the Glitterati—without them suspecting a thing is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her: evening the social playing field between the haves and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.

But when the cops start investigating the string of thefts at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could Aidan wind up being the person that Willa trusts most?

Who here is a big fan of Robin Hood? I was super excited when I found out that a young adult novel is inspired by Robin Hood! A modern day Robin Hood but with style! I couldn't wait to start reading Pretty Crooked! But while this was cute, I really did not like the protagonist, Willa, at all! The first fifty pages showed me her spunk and how she was a total rebel at heart. Living the poor life, her mother finally gets a lucky break with her paintings and they move states to a luxuries neighborhood and gets enrolled in a top notch private school. 

Unfortunately as soon as she steps inside the school and gets accepted into the Glitterati (think the mean girls in the movie Mean Girls) her whole attitude changed. She seemed so desperate to me at times, just to gain their approval. She even witnessed straight on bullying and barely said anything to the girls, afraid to lose her status, to me, that is really cowardly and I just couldn't stand her anymore!

When Willa finally takes her eyes off all those designer clothes she's been buying and finally thinks for a minute, she finally admits to herself that what the Glitteratis are doing needs to be stopped. She gets an idea, and it is to rob the rich and buy DESIGNER CLOTHES to the scholarship girls at the school to even out the score. CLOTHES? and DESIGNER at that? REALLY? what a genius idea *sarcastic tone*. I just found that idea absurd, and wanted to smack her to reality, because that is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard. So I laughed, I totally enjoyed reading how she learnt to  steal and to try and "even out the playing field" and the writing is definitely superb which is why I  stuck through it, even with the absurd plot. Add in a hot boy in the mix, Aidan, and i'm happy; though I hoped he had more page time (screen time but in book language), I still really loved his charm. I'm a sucker for guys with the witty charm. 

While I might have had some major problems with the protagonist and idea, i did enjoy the book, it was funny, cute, and a great contemporary. This is only the first book, so make sure to check out the second book because this one ended in a cliffhanger! 

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