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Feb 15, 2012

Aimee rated it:

I really wanted to love this one, but for most of the book, I really had to force myself to keep reading. I couldn't connect to Ricki Jo, or Ericka, at all. As Ericka, most of the time I wanted to smack her upside the head for the stuff she did and the people she hurt. I do realize that the storyline was realistic. That some people will do anything, even go against their own beliefs, to be popular. But watching Ericka push those people who would truly care for her was hard.

I liked Lu More...

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Feb 06, 2012

Robin rated it:

This solid, fun novel about the trials and tribulations of the high school social landscape will appeal to many girl readers. As a student transferring into her local high school after years in a private school, Kentucky teen Ricky Jo is determined to reinvent herself as a popular, cool kid, symbolized by her changing her name to Erika.
All the issues of the social minefield are there: clothes, family wealth, "coolness", and of course, BOYS.
The reflected glory of a romance wit More...

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Jan 18, 2012

Taylor rated it:

Taylor Long
18 January 2012
English 10
Mr. Rich
Book Review E

Whitaker, Alecia. The Queen of Kentucky. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

Being the new girl is hard at first, and all that new kid wants is to fit in and be known. In The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker, Ricki Jo is the new girl at a new school and she is trying desperately to fit in. One major problem for her is that she hasn’t hit puberty yet, and that devastates her. Ricki Jo tries More...

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Jan 11, 2012

Nancy rated it:

While I was reading: I thought this was a cute book that had all of the elements for a great after school special. Plain country girl, wants to be popular, meets hot new guy, gets in with popular friends, best friend is a guy, makes cheer squad and everybody knows that in the end she'll get burned and go back to her roots, right? Maybe not exactly like that but something similar. The truth is that is what extremely painful for an author to relive my freshman year for me in detail, hitting my own More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Kelly rated it:

Ricki Jo is about to start high school and she's determined to reinvent herself. Yes, she's a farmer's daughter and yes, she is very country but that doesn't mean she can't be popular too, right? So she starts going by Ericka and starts reading Seventeen and quickly gets popular friends, becomes a cheerleader and captures the attention of the cutest guy in school...well, at least 25% of the time when he's not too busy noticing other girls or being a jerk to her.

You know exactly h More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Heather rated it:

The Queen of Kentucky has so many things going for it. First is the cover, which is one of my favorites I've seen come in the mail. It's not that often we see covers in yellow- it jumps out at you. The second thing is the fun trailer and third is the author. I admire authors who take time our of their busy schedules to tweet you and thank you for reading their book. The setting is the deep south which wide open spaces, dusty dirt roads,a pond and acres and acres of tobacco. I became immediately More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2012

Justin rated it:

The Queen of Kentucky turned out to be one of those books that left me thinking, how in the world am I going to review this? It's an extremely cute book, and has a powerful message for not just people around the age of the characters but for anyone that reads it. But I also felt that some of the things in the book were taken to the extreme, and that kind of ruined a few things for me.

First of all, I love the basic concept of the story. It's basically a story about finding who you are, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Elizabeth rated it:

3/5 stars for sure. It was one of those books that was a checklist of a YA novel. You had the love triangle (and then some), the friends she got along with every once in a while, and the list goes on. There was a heart wrenching twist here and there (bring the tissues), but it wasn't much different from Mean Girls with a bit of an ode to the south.

I did enjoy this book for what it is. It's about a girl who thinks she has to change herself to become popular and to get the "ri More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Sara rated it:

It's the first day of high school for Ricky Jo, and she wants to recreate herself to fit in. She will be a new-kid at school even though she has always lived in Breckinridge, KY (she has attending Catholic school until now). As they are cutting tobacco, she tells her best friend Luke that he is to call her Ericka at school, it is more mature.

As Ericka tries so hard to make new friends: trying out for cheerleader, wearing different clothes, doing/saying things she would not normally More...

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Jan 16, 2012

Kris rated it:

This is such a fun read! Most of us at one point or another worried about fitting in, with any crowd, and Ricki Jo is the same way. She wants to be popular, date a hot guy, and be liked. The way she goes about it is hilarious and sometimes nerve-wracking and over-the-top. I mean, a fourteen-year-old girl sneaking out and drinking? There are limits to what I'd do. Ricki Jo is willing to sacrifice to some of her moral qualms in order to belong.

Of course, Ricki Jo's actions, their conse More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Barbara rated it:

Ricki Jo Winstead, 14, is entering her first year of high school, and she wants to reinvent herself, leaving her 4-H and farm girl persona behind. Thus, she decides that she is to be called Ericka since the name sounds more sophisticated than her other name, and she changes the way she dresses and talks and allies herself with four freshman girls who seem to be at the top of the social food chain. She also falls head over heels with Wolf, the flirtatious basketball star in her Spanish class. Eri More...

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Feb 13, 2012

Kailia rated it:

4.5 on blog

I really love contemporaries that are fun and cute but have a deeper message. Queen of Kentucky by Alicia Whitaker was just that! It was fun, cute, lighthearted, full of drama but an excellent book! But it's so much more than that. Alicia Whitaker skillfully showed that there are many sides to life than meets the eye, or in this case, what you see.

Ricki Jo was a girl I knew I was going to love from the very beginning. She was quirky and weird and different and More...

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Jan 27, 2012

Savannah (Books With Bite) rated it:

Everybody wants to fit in. So while reading this book and seeing what Ricki-Jo is going through, I can relate. High School is hard and life changing. I adored this book cause of the way the author writes about real things that goes on in life. High school, boys, drama, family. All of these elements play an important part in Ricki-Jo's life.

Ricky-Jo is like every country girl. T-shirt, jeans, hair messy and always up to something. Ricky-Jo is ready for her life to change and she takes More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 14, 2012

Amy rated it:

The new girl at Preston County High School, 14-year-old Ricki Jo Winstead is determined to shed her Kentucky tomboy image, find a spot in the popular clique and land the perfect boy. Along the way, she learns that popularity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that perfect boy has been right next door all along. Ricki Jo’s witty voice and small-but-mighty attitude make her the perfect narrator for this sweet teen romance.

I was afraid this book was going to be the typical one-dimension More...

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Jan 02, 2012

Sarah rated it:

I picked up this Advance Reading Copy at ALA Annual last summer and am just now getting around to reading it! I always pick up "rural reads," mainly to see if the author/publisher/editor got it right. I've lived in rural areas all my life, so it's a pleasure to see some YA novel that isn't set in a large city!

Ricki Jo is trying to re-make herself as she enters high school. She wants to be called Ericka, tries out for cheerleading, doesn't go out for band, and falls in love More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Natsgoldenbooks rated it:

Ericka (aka Ricky Jo) just wants to fit in when she begins high school. All shes ever dreamed of is being popular and having her very own boyfriend. So when high school starts, she realizes that if she wants what shes been yearning for then she needs to step up her game. From there on in she begins her transformation into the desired girl of her dreams. She becomes a cheer leader, gets some new “friends”, and her crush on Wolf (the school sleaze-ball/hunk) grows rapidly. Only once shes landed t More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Shannon rated it:

The Queen of Kentucky is a charming coming-of-age contemporary with a spunky main character you'll love to root for.

I really liked Ricki Jo, her voice is authentic for her age and funny. She's someone who wants to stay true to herself but also make new friends and fit in, which isn't the easiest combination for her. Even though she doesn't always make the right choices, she does tries to learn from them. She's very resilient, which is great for someone her age and means she's quick t More...

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Feb 04, 2012

Fran added it

*Spoiler Free*

This was a really sweet, contemporary novel!

The Queen of Kentucky is all about growing up, with Ricki Jo wanting to be transformed into the popular, 'cool' Ericka on her first day of high school. Ricki Jo was a really cute character and you do feel sympathy with her and how she just wants to fit in and finally grow up. I liked seeing her character mature and slowly realising that perhaps her 'best friends' were not all that they were cracked up More...

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Jan 27, 2012

Angel rated it:

Alecia Whitaker's 'The Queen of Kentucky' is sweet like the quenching splash of lemonade on a hot summer day. But for Ricky Jo (or Erika, if you must) summer is dry and gone and the school year is here for her to repaint herself as popular, likeable, and looked up to. Ricky Jo, country and devout Catholic girl, is gone: here comes Erika, beautiful, smart, and stylish.

Who was gonna tell her that molding herself into a different person was going to be so dang hard???

I LOVE More...

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Sep 23, 2011

Colleen rated it:

This is a darling, darling book! I just adored Ricki Jo Winstead! She's so funny and the story is one that anyone who is in high school, or approaching high school, or has SURVIVED high school can relate to. Alecia Whitaker captures the roller coaster of high school drama perfectly...cliques, peer pressure, mean girls, jerky boys, boys next door, sneaking out, first dances, first hangovers, first crushes..it's all in here! BIG BONUS: having deep ties to Appalachia myself, it was so incredibl More...

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Jan 20, 2012

Jocelyn rated it:

I really really REALLY loved and related to this book. Not about living on a farm and working in the sun...but simply relate to the highschool thing. I really loved the fact that the author wasn't fake about the thoughts in young teenage girls minds. Going from 8th grade to highschool is scary, not only that, but being a new girl is also scary. Even if a few people already know you, when no one KNOWS you or anything...it's really scary. I love how Luke was really known and that even though he di More...

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Jan 06, 2012

Jen rated it:

I started out annoyed with Ricki Jo. But then I remembered: she's 14. I was THE most annoying 14 year old in existence. And once I accepted this, I totally related to Ricki Jo. You guys, this book is PAINFULLY relatable. It hit me on a very personal level, because I WAS THAT GIRL. I was awkward and an outcast who wanted more than anything to be popular. I had no idea who I was and changed myself and the way I acted to be accepted. I was the cheerleader who wasn't that great who was in love with More...

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Jan 22, 2012

Myranda added it

Review originally posted on: www.myreadsda.com

The Queen of Kentucky is a book that I, as a Kentucky native myself, could relate to. Being able to relate to the characters and the surroundings really made me enjoy this book. The Queen of Kentucky is one of those books that has such a great message.

I live on a farm, in fact it used to be a tobacco farm, so picturing the setting was easy for me. Ricki Jo lives the more country lifestyle in Kentucky I learned a lot about the More...

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Jan 05, 2012

Sasha rated it:

3.5 stars

Ricki Jo aka Ericka is starting high school. A fresh start! She'll make cool new friends and wear cute clothes! Yay! And..she's finally going to be able to change what people see when they look at her. Wait..is this really a good idea??

High school is a very important transitional period for everyone - boys and girls. And when you're starting at a high school where you didn't go the same middle school as most everyone else, things can seem rough. Ricki Jo quickly trie More...

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Feb 13, 2012

Rachel rated it:

I went into reading The Queen of Kentucky with high expectations because I grew up in Kentucky, not far from where the author is from, and I was interested to see how other people perceived the place where many of my earliest memories are from. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. This was a cute read but I feel like some of it was cliched. Ricki Jo was starting her freshman year of high school so like most young girls, she wanted to start off on the right foot and become popular and More...

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Jan 02, 2012

Book Sp(l)ot rated it:

Ricki Jo Winstead is fourteen and about to start high school. She's lived her whole life in the tiny town of Breckinridge, Kentucky but thanks to attending private school school through junior high, she's about to be the new girl at the public high school.

Determined to reinvent, Ricki Jo decides she's going to be called Ericka and make all new friends, the right friends.

But leaving 4-H Ricki Jo who helps out on her best friend's tobacco farm behind for Ericka who hangs with t More...

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Jan 07, 2012

Britta rated it:

I read the description, looked at the cover and immediately thought that this would be an extremely cute novel, and it is, but there is so much more to the story than just that. I was impressed by Alecia Whitaker's ability to weave in darker, serious issues into a light story, it gave the novel a lot of depth and made it a much more substantial read.

Ricki Jo is about to enter high school, public high school (her first year not in private school), and she had decided that she wants to b More...

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Feb 08, 2012

Great Books rated it:

The new girl at Preston County High School, 14-year-old Ricki Jo Winstead is determined to shed her Kentucky tomboy image, find a spot in the popular clique and land the perfect boy. Along the way, she learns that popularity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that perfect boy has been right next door all along. Ricki Jo’s witty voice and small-but-mighty attitude make her the perfect narrator for this sweet teen romance. Reviewer 6

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Jan 11, 2012

Dana rated it:

Rating: 3.5

Cute. Ricki Jo/Ericka annoyed me sometimes though. Seriously, don't worry about all those things. I liked Luke, but he annoyed me at times too. He's just too closed off.

Maybe I'll post a review later. Midterms coming up soon. Gag.

See? That's something she should be worrying about, instead of french kissing boys and popularity.

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Jan 19, 2012

Shannon rated it:

This book was a very fast and easy read. It was also very adorable and very realistic as well. The main character is fourteen years old so she is a tad annoying but who isn't when they are that age. So when I was reading this book I had to remind myself, a few times, that she was only fourteen and therefore allowed to be a little annoying. Because when you are that young nobody has who they are figured out.

I enjoyed reading this book and I would probably reread it again someti More...

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