Review by Jess Hearn, age 14

If you’re a teenage girl looking for a page-turning book that actually makes you laugh then Geek Girl will hit the spot.

It’s the first novel by author Holly Smale, who comes from Welwyn Garden City, and she draws on her experience of being a geeky teenager who tasted the highlife of the modelling world to pull the story together.

The main character is 15-year-old Harriet Manners – who is a totally believable nerd, clumsy, lacking in confidence, full of random facts and obsessed with drawing up lists. She’s also very funny.

The fast-paced plot starts with Harriet reluctantly accompanying her best friend Nat on a visit to a big fashion show – where incredibly she is spotted by top model agency Infinity Models who think she is the next big thing to hit the catwalks.

Harriet is hoping that the world of modelling will transform her from social geek to cool chick – but of course things don’t go smoothly for her.

From there, events spiral out of control – a trip to Russia, a friendship wrecked, catwalk catastrophes and a ponytail is cut off too.

The chapters are quite short and punchy so it’s easy to read. And because Harriet is funny and feels like a real teenager you want to keep reading the story to find out what’s going to happen next.

There’s also some good characters in the book. Her best friend Nat, who’s obsessed with fashion; arch enemy Alexa who is really nasty; stalker Toby who is uber geek and her dad and step-mum who are quite funny as well.

I really enjoyed reading this book – mainly because it made me laugh a lot – and I would highly recommend it to teen readers.

* Geek Girl was published on 28 February 2013