Sometimes you find a book that has a brilliant premise, luscious setting, and characters who overflow with potential. And then... the author screws it all up. Katie Crouch's "The Magnolia League" has so much going for it -- Southern belles, black magic, temptation and the beauty of the Deep South -- but it's squandered on a truly repulsive, obnoxious heroine. 
 After her mother dies in a car crash, Alexandria Lee has to leave her neo-hippie commune home, and live with her dignified grandmother in Savannah Georgia. But she doesn't fit in with the other people there. It's partly because of her dreads and casual clothes, but also because she's a self-righteous preachy brat. 
 But her grandmother is determined to make Alex over into not only a Southern belle, but into a member of the Magnolia League. These ladies -- and their perfect daughters -- are blessed with beauty, youth and wealth. 
 And after learning that the free-spirited neo-hippies aren't the unworldly saints that she thought, Alex discovers that the Magnolia League is involved in hoodoo, folk magic bestowed on them by the Gullah family known as the Buzzards. But as Alex gives in and becomes enmeshed in the hoodoo, she finds that there is a price she isn't willing to pay... 
 "The Magnolia League" is one of those books that just has a brilliant premise -- we have white-gloved, aristocratic Southern belles using local folk magic for their own ends. And Katie Crouch obviously has first-hand knowledge of Savannah, and she weaves in a lot of details that add realism to the story, such as the Gullah population, hoodoo spells and "haint blue" paint. 
 Unfortunately, Alex is a horrible, vile person. She spends the first half of the book being a preachy killjoy who nags at the other characters for driving cars, shopping for clothes, etc. Then she gives in to peer pressure and starts using hoodoo because.... she wants to be skinny. Yeah, the protagonist is actually the shallowest, most hypocritical person in the cast. 
 In short, Alex is judgemental, whiny, weak and wishy-washy. And she does something despicable, something UNFORGIVABLE to her boyfriend in the final chapters, and is shocked when "I'm sorry" doesn't earn instant forgiveness. 
 I will give Crouch credit -- I think she was trying to give her main character flaws (such as her chubbiness) rather than making her a perfect Sue. But she goes too far. Her writing is decent, but she peppers her story with way, way too many pop culture references -- Zac Efron, Justin Timberlake, and ""I don't mean to get all Kanye..." It's just distracting. 
 Some of the side-characters are fun, like snarky Mean Girl Madison, the creepy Sina, or the dorky Dex. And while Thaddeus is a thoroughly generic Brooding Love Interest, he is given a truly horrific reason to be. Unfortunately, none of the characters are fleshed out to their full potential -- Miss Lee, Sina, Sam and Hayes are left painfully underdeveloped. 
 "The Magnolia League" has a brilliant concept and a great setting, but the vile main character and underdeveloped supporting cast left me cold.