Review: When Audrey Met Alice by Rebecca Behrens

First daughter Audrey Rhodes re-creates Alice Roosevelt's infamous antics in this fun, smart middle-grade debut

First daughter Audrey Rhodes can't wait for the party she has planned for Friday night. The decorations are all set and the pizza is on its way. But the Secret Service must be out to ruin her life, because they cancel at the last minute-citing security breach and squashing Audrey's chances for making any new friends. What good is being "safe and secure" if you can't have any fun?

Audrey is ready to give up and become a White House hermit, until she discovers Alice Roosevelt's hidden diary. The former first daughter gives Audrey a ton of ideas for having fun...and more problems than she can handle.

My Review:

I am glad that this was a pick for Dahlia's Book Club, because I really enjoyed it and probably wouldn't have read it otherwise.  This one was pretty cute and fun, while also having some serious moments.  Overall, I didn't think this read too young for me.  It seemed more like it was on the upper end of Middle Grade, since the main character was in 8th grade, and was a teenager.

I enjoyed how this really showed that being the president's daughter isn't necessarily an amazing experience.  It shows how it can be lonely to be living in the White House with parents who are two busy for you.  It shows how it can be hard to make friends at a new school because you can't tell if they genuinely are interested in being friends with you as a person, and not just because you're the First Daughter.  Of course, I haven't had this experience so I don't know what it's really like, but it read very genuine to me.

I liked getting to read the fictional diary of Alice Roosevelt.  She had quite the adventures in her days.  I liked seeing how things that Audrey did paralleled the life of Alice, and how reading about Alice was really able to help her. 

I liked the sweet romance that developed between Audrey and her friend from school, Quint.  Since this is MG, the romance was not a big focus, and remained a friendship for a while.  But once it turned into a romance, it was quite cute and light. 

If you like MG and younger YA, read this book.

Katie