REVIEW #114: The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

Title: The Summer I Became a Nerd
Author: Leah Rae Miller
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: May 7th 2013
Pages: Paperback, 267 pages

Summary from Goodreads:
On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.

The Summer I Became a Nerd transports you right into high school popularity drama. Maddie learned her lesson early when she dressed up as her favorite comic book character for a costume contest and was laughed at by her friends. From that day forward she vowed to keep her comic book loving side a secret. Everything changes when the cute comic store clerk lets her borrow issue #400, the final issue in her favorite series.

It is hard to describe my feelings towards this book. Being only 267 pages, it was a super fast cute read. I found Maddie to be pretty easy to relate to; the characters where real and portrayed honest high school feelings and insecurities. That being said though, I felt like the story was a bit more on the younger side of young adult. The romance was cute, I know he keep using that word but it is the perfect word to describe the moments between Logan and Maddie. You just want to say AWWW.

I did not really have any issues with the story; it was a pretty basic plot. There were no real twists or crazy suspense, the story just kept moving at an entertaining yet predictable pace. There were some funny lines and cute comic and LARPing moments but overall the story had no special wow factor that would bump it to a 4 or 5 star story.

The Summer I Became a Nerd is a fun, cute love story about a girl overcoming her insecurities and truly allowing her true self to come out. If you are looking to be drawn right back into high school and feel some of the drama of fitting in this book is perfect fit.