REVIEW: Vintage Veronica by Erica Perl

Veronica Walsh is 15, fashion-minded, fat, and friendless. Her summer job in the Consignment Corner section (Employees Only!) of a vintage clothing store is a dream come true. There Veronica can spend her days separating the one-of-a-kind gem garments from the Dollar-a-Pound duds, without having to deal with people. But when two outrageous yet charismatic salesgirls befriend her and urge her to spy on and follow the mysterious and awkward stock boy Veronica has nicknamed the Nail, Veronica’s summer takes a turn for the weird. Suddenly, what began as a prank turns into something else entirely. Which means Veronica may have to come out of hiding and follow something even riskier for the first time: her heart. YA Fiction


REVIEW:
Vintage Veronica is a refreshingly original and quirky story with characters that I would actually want to be friends with.
Veronica’s parents are divorced, she’s overweight and her mom is always trying to fix her. The one highlight of her life is vintage clothes. Drawing them, going to the “fleas” to buy them, and putting everything together to make the perfect outfit of a poufy skirt with a vintage guayabera shirt, men’s bowling shoes and cat eye sunglasses. She’s thrilled when she gets her dream job at the Clothing Bonanza, a vintage clothing Mecca, working in the Consignment Corner sorting through vintage clothes.
What I loved about Veronica is that yes - she’s overweight and she doesn’t have the greatest situation at home but she never feels sorry for herself, she’s confident and marches to the beat of her own drummer!
That’s not to say she’s not susceptible to peer pressure at times. Salesgirls Zoe and Ginger take Veronica under their wing and ask her to spy on the stock boy whom she also suspects of stealing and she does. What she finds is a kindred spirit in Len, an awkward boy who collects reptiles.
When Zoe & Ginger plot against Len, Veronica has to make some tough choices to save Len’s job and his beloved pet skink Violet.
I am not someone who is into fashion, vintage or otherwise, but Perl’s descriptions of the raw deal – dollar a pound and other store lingo were so vivid, it had me wanting to find a vintage clothing store to check out.
This is a great little story with a sweet romance. The Clothing Bonanza is a character all its own.
Loved: Veronica & Len, the fun, original writing style of Erica Perl
Nitpick: Because I’m not much of a clothing aficionado, I was often confused by some of the terms used but it wasn’t a big problem.

Rating: 3.5 out of 4. If you’re looking for something different than the typical Barbie doll characters (not that there’s anything wrong with that - LOL! I like those too) this is a great book to check out!

View the trailer for Vintage Veronica

Author's website: http://www.ericaperl.com/

Follow Erica on Twitter: @ericaperl

Buy the book: Vintage Veronica