Competing with a Star by Krysten Lindsay Hager
Hadley Daniels’s life seems perfect…
Before the beginning of sophomore year of high school, Hadley and her family move to a beautiful beach town, where she makes amazing new friends and lands the boyfriend of her dreams—Nick Jenkins. He’s the kind of guy every girl swoons over, and it isn’t long until Hadley discovers some are still swooning. A famous ex-girlfriend makes matters more complicated…
After some time dating, Hadley and Nick form a deep bond. But insecurity sets in when Hadley discovers her boyfriend once had a huge crush on her friend—who just happens to be the beautiful former teen TV star, Simone Hendrickson. The past is the past—or so they say…
Hadley confronts Nick, who confesses about his history with Simone. Though he claims to only have eyes for Hadley now, it’s hard to believe—especially when she’s blindsided with the news that Nick and Simone kissed after school.
Now Hadley must determine who is telling the truth. Love, betrayal, friendship…who needs soap opera drama
when you’re busy competing with a star?
Praise:
“Hadley our teenage heroine has many of the insecurities, which inflict most of us at this young age…A lovely story, with some good lessons about friendship, self-esteem and relationships, perfectly pitched for teen/young adult readers.” From author Jane Hunt. “…
Hager's main character is representative of every teenage girl. The author really nailed the reality of a young girl's early high school years. I think this is a valuable read for girls ages 12-18.” Review from Readers’ Favorite book reviews. “…
The story gives you so much insight into the minds of teenage girls and makes you realize that deep down, everyone has the same insecurities and everyone goes through the same things in life. Despite these insecurities and fears, the main character stands up for herself. This is such an important message for teen girls!” Amazon customer review
Excerpt:
Then the most beautiful sound in the world came along—the
final bell. I grabbed my bag and rushed out the door to my locker, where I ran
into Reagan O’Hara, Nick’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend. “Watch where you’re going,
spaz,” she said, glaring at me. “Exactly where are you in such a hurry to get
to anyway? I can’t imagine that you’d have plans.”
I could have said, “Off to meet my boyfriend, you know, the
guy you used to badmouth me to,” but no, I took the high road and said, “Excuse
me,” and kept going.
“Whatever, loser,” she said. My shoulders tensed. As I tried
to ignore her and tell myself it was just jealousy, I couldn’t pretend that her
words didn’t hurt. I had been considered kind of a loser at my old school in
Goodacre. I had had one super close best friend who I did everything with, Lexi
Irvin, and when she moved to Dallas, it was as if I had been abandoned. So
yeah, I had felt like a complete loser in Goodacre, but now I was here in Grand
Haven, with new friends and a new positive outlook on life. I had a new best
friend, Charlotte Lidstrom, and had become friends with former teen TV star
Simone Hendrickson and her best friend, Asia Milanowski.
It could be intimidating hanging out with Simone since she
was popular, pretty, and famous. Sometimes I felt invisible next to her, and
unfortunately, hanging with Simone sometimes meant spending time with people
like Reagan or Simone’s other friends, Pilar Ito and Morgan Kemp. Morgan was
the ultimate mean girl. I swear, even if she told me she loved my outfit and
was hooked up to a lie detector test saying she was telling the truth, I still
wouldn’t want to risk it and I’d go home and change. But today I was not going
to worry about Morgan, Reagan, or any of that. I was just going to focus on my
first date with Nick.
Until I rounded the corner and ran into Simone, who was
waiting for me at my locker with Morgan and Pilar.
“Hey, Hadley,” Simone said. “Wanted to return your lucky
bracelet. Let’s hope it helped me pass my math test.”
She handed me my heart and natural stone charm bracelet and
I slid it on my wrist. Morgan looked down at my hands and made a face.
“Why are you wearing such dark nail polish?” she asked me.
My face got warm. “I thought the color was pretty when I saw
it in the store. I’ve never seen this shade of purple with so much blue in it.”
“Guys aren’t into weird nail polish colors,” Morgan said as
she fluffed her long curly blonde hair with her red polished fingers.
Great, so even my nail polish was wrong. Could I do anything
right?
“Here comes Nick,” Pilar said, and the girls all got quiet.
“Hey, guys,” he said, coming up and nodding at them. I
started to curl my fingers under so he wouldn’t notice my dark polish—the color
that up until a few minutes ago I thought was unique and beautiful was now
making me feel like a little oddball.
“Cool color,” Nick said.
“Huh?”
“I like the blue. It’s very you,” he said, and then he
reached over and intertwined his fingers with mine. Take that, you dark nail
polish haters.
“So are we all heading over to Scoops together?” he asked.
Simone played with a strand of her long blonde hair, but
didn’t say a thing.
“Yup, we thought we’d go over with you guys,” Morgan said,
smiling up at him with her gleaming white teeth.
Wait, what? No, not cool. This was our first date and I knew
I’d feel awkward talking to him around a group—a group judging me on what I
said, did, and apparently even the colors I wore.
Author Krysten Lindsay Hager
Krysten
Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in,
frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of
True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in
Like. and Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2). Her work
has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven
Tribune, the Bellbrook Times, and on Living Dayton.
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