A Collection of Janette Rallison's Works

Covering All's Fair in Love, War, and High School; Revenge of the Cheerleaders; Fame, Glory, and Other Things on My To Do List; and How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend.

From Goodreads for All's Fair in Love, War, and High School

"When your chances for getting into college and your date for the prom are all on the line…

Sixteen-year-old Samantha Taylor is used to having things go her way. She's head cheerleader and has all the right friends and a steady stream of boyfriends. But when she tanks the SATs, her automatic assumptions about going to college don't appear to be so automatic anymore. She determines that her only hope for college admission is to win the election for student body president. Unfortunately, with her razor wit and acid tongue she's better suited to dishing out insults than winning votes.

When she brashly bets her classmate Logan that she can go two weeks without uttering a single insult, Samantha immediately realizes that she may have bitten off more than she can chew. And when her current boyfriend dumps her, less than three weeks before the prom, it couldn't be a worse time to be forced to keep her opinions to herself. Finding a new boyfriend will be a challenge now that Logan shadows her every move, hoping to catch her slipping back into her old ways. Samantha is determined to win the election and find a dream date for the prom, no matter what it takes. After all . . . all's fair in love and war (and high school!)."


From Goodreads for Revenge of the Cheerleaders

"Chelsea's school year has taken a turn for the worse. After being dumped by her boyfriend and humiliated at the pep assembly by her younger sister's boyfriend, Rick, she's just concentrating on avoiding any other major embarrassments. That's when Rick and his band debut their new album, complete with a whole set of songs bashing cheerleaders. Chelsea's humiliation has reached a whole new level now that everyone is walking down the halls singing the words to "Dangerously Blonde." It's time to make Rick pay. All he wants is to win the High School Idol audition, so he can be on his way to rock star fame and fortune. But with the help of her best friends, Aubrie and Samantha, Chelsea is going to steal his victory right out from under him. The characters from All's Fair in Love, War and High School are back, only this time it's payback."

From Goodreads for Fame, Glory, and Other Things on My To Do List:


"A PC school principal turns West Side Story into a comedy of errors. Sixteen year-old Jessica dreams of Hollywood fame, and when Jordan moves into her small town, she dreams of him too. He's a movie star's son, and hey, he's gorgeous to boot. Jordan has always wanted to get out from the shadow cast by his superstar father, but now that he and his mother have moved so far away from LA, how can he get his divorced parents back together? Jessica convinces Jordan the way to get his father to come for a long visit is to be a part of the school play. And if she's "discovered" in the process, all the better. Things go wrong when she lets Jordan's secret identity slip, and grow even more disastrous when the principal tries to change West Side Story into a gang-free, violence-free, politically correct production."

From Goodreads for How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend:

"Sixteen-year-old Giovanna Petrizzo finds it hard enough to fit in. Three years since her family moved to Texas, she's still the newcomer compared to everyone around her. It doesn't help matters when her twin brother, Dante, takes on the mayor's son by running for class president. The least she could expect, though, would be for her boyfriend, Jesse, to support their cause. But Jesse's apparent defection triggers Giovanna's rash emotional side, and before she knows it, she's turned Jesse from the boy of her dreams to the ex-boyfriend she dreams of winning back."

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Thanks to the tiny aforementioned library in my hometown, I decided to work my way through a goodly number of Ms. Rallison's works because they were there. Well, and because My Unfair Godmother was so delightful. (Seriously, go give it a read!) I have to say, if I had the passion it took to write novels, Ms. Rallison would be my role model. Her books are genuinely funny, yet the characters don't lead charmed lives or miserable lives. They're just everyday kids who have to work to overcome their flaws and learn how to accept other people as they are and not how the protagonists wish they would be. I find them quite loveable because of it. 

The above description could leave you thinking that Rallison's works are a collection of morality tales, but they aren't--they have scope and some depth and a LOT of humor. At the same time, if in a few years my girls (who currently dwell in their limbo pre-pre-teen state and are blissfully unaware of boys in general except for how obnoxious their brother can be at times) were to have a problem that Rallison covers, I'd happily hand them the book and have a discussion later on how it could apply to their own lives. 

So, the upshot of this review is: GO READ THESE BOOKS! I found myself laughing out loud, but also nodding along and cheering for the main characters as they made difficult decisions and started becoming better versions of themselves. And the best part was that none of the heroines ever flapped their hands and gave up--they kept going and worked out solutions to their problems by themselves. Admirable.

Gentle Reader Alert: There was nothing of concern.