Find my reviews on Blogger ~ Reviews by Bookish Sarah 
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 2.5 stars 
 The Princesses of Iowa is the story of Paige - high school senior, rich kid, popular gal, "princess", shallow, etc. She and her two best friends, Nikki and Lacey, were in a car accident during the spring. A car accident in which all three of them were drunk - Nikki was driving, Lacey was "crippled", and Paige walked away with nothing more than a few bumps and bruises. 
 Paige's mother decides shipping her off to Paris is the best way to do damage control. So, while Paige is spending the summer in Paris, life goes on without her at home in Willow Grove, Iowa. 
 Upon her return, she sees that her boyfriend, Jake, and Lacey have become practically BFFs, Nikki is wasting away to nothing with strange dieting habits, and everyone thinks she was having the time of her life in Paris (when in reality, she hated it there) and seem resentful of her because of it. 
 While everyone seems to skirt around the subject of the accident last spring, the three friends concentrate on becoming the homecoming princesses; a goal they've all had since childhood. During this and the falling apart of her friendships, Paige begins to realize what's really important in life, how to stop placing blame on everyone but herself, and how to forgive. 
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 Spoilers ahead! 
 Dislikes: 
 *Okay, I was so bored while reading this that I nearly marked it DNF. I hate doing that, though, so I trudged through. I, personally, was only entertained with about 25% of this novel. It's almost 500 pages long, and I feel that it was completely unnecessary to drag it out for such a long time. This leads me to my next issue... 
 *The plot. There was too much going on. The car accident was not even the main focus of this book. It was mostly centered around Paige, Lacey, and Jake + their relationship drama. Every time I turned around Paige was fighting with Jake about how close he was getting to Lacey, how he was ditching her for Lacey, etc. etc. Then she'd forgive him and pretty much turn into a bumbling fool every time the guy kissed her or gave her a hug. She let him act like a complete jerk and give her the run around without any consequences. No wonder he walked all over her! The other issue with the plot was that there was a parallel storyline about gay rights. I guess where these people live is some sort of cowtown. So they have cowtown views on such things, and when a teacher is suspected of being gay, rumors are started, and eventually accusations are made and he ends up getting into some trouble. Well, I don't really think this added anything to the plot as a whole. I feel like if this element were taken out, the story could have been better. It's not that I have a problem with gay rights, don't get me wrong. I am actually very passionate about them. It's just that the impact of the message that (I thought) was supposed to be the main focus of this novel would have been more intense. Don't drink and drive, right? Instead, the gay rights issue took over more of the book than the actual drunk driving thing. That, plus the relationship drama and teen angst, just made this book one big, mixed-up blob of stuff. If someone asked me what it was about, I would not know what to say. Drinking and driving? Gay rights? Shallow girls learning to be nicer and less judgmental? Vapid mothers? Writing? Cowtown assholes? Love triangles? It's all too much. 
 *Language. For a YA novel, this book was far too vulgar for my tastes. I can say without a doubt that the words "faggot" (or fag) and "fuck" appeared at least 20 times each. Less severe words like "slut" and "whore" were thrown in for good measure, I suppose. My point is, was it necessary? Does it need to be THAT crude? I think using the word faggot just once is offensive enough to last the entire novel. I don't mind a few curse words, but this was way too much. 
 Likes 
 *The writing. While the story was less than great for me, the writing was very good and quite beautiful. 
 *The messages. While a jumbles mess, the messages were still good ones to take on and I am glad someone is trying to get them out there. Drunk driving (and underage drinking in general!), gay rights, learning not to be so shallow and judgmental of people. All very good things to get out to teens. 
 *The romance. I did enjoy the romance between Paige and Ethan. I wish we'd gotten to see more of them together. They were great together and Ethan was my favorite character from the book. It's a shame too much of it was wasted on Jake. 
 Overall: 
 While a bit jumbled and slow-moving, this book has some really great messages to get out there. I think, aside from the language, this is a book that'd be great for teens to read. It teaches multiple life lessons and it does it from a teen's perspective. It tells how drinking and driving can ruin lives, how judging people by how they look or who they love is wrong, that the things you do effect more people than just yourself, and that forgiveness is a gift that should be given much easier than it sometimes is. Backes has a lovely writing style that brings each element of the story in a wonderful way. I don't think I would recommend this to too many people, but if you have patience, it's probably worth a shot for you. 
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 Book source: NetGalley 
 Publisher: Candlewick Press