ARC Review: Paper or Plastic by Vivi Barnes

Title: Paper or Plastic
Author: Vivi Barnes
Genre: Contemporary 
Source: Entangled Teen via NetGalley
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2014
Add it to Goodreads / Pre-order it on Amazon

Summary: 

Welcome to SmartMart, where crime pays minimum wage... Busted. Alexis Dubois just got caught shoplifting a cheap tube of lipstick at the local SmartMart. She doesn’t know what’s worse—disappointing her overbearing beauty-pageant-obsessed mother for the zillionth time…or her punishment. Because Lex is forced to spend her summer working at the store, where the only things stranger than the staff are the customers. Now Lex is stuck in the bizarro world of big-box retail. Coupon cutters, jerk customers, and learning exactly what a “Code B” really is (ew). And for added awkwardness, her new supervisor is the totally cute—and adorably geeky—Noah Grayson. Trying to balance her out-of-control mother, her pitching position on the softball team, and her secret crush on the school geek makes for one crazy summer. But ultimately, could the worst job in the world be the best thing that ever happened to her?

Paper or Plastic is a light read, I blew through it in one sitting. I was impressed with this book, to me it felt like an almost acurate account of teenagers. Paper or Plastic is for someone who isn't looking for something heavy, but more of something fun and light. 

When Lex gets caught shoplifting some lipstick with her friend Court she never expected her punishment to be working at the SmartMart for the whole summer. Maybe her summer isn't going to suck that bad though. The one benefit of her job is her super cute manager Noah Grayson, little does she know it is the same boy that her best friends and herself hate for an incident that happened two years earlier. But what if this summer, is actually the best thing that has ever happened to her? 

My favorite thing about this book was the characters. They were real. Lex didn't have a perfect family, she felt like she didn't matter in their eyes, ect. It was actually refreshing to read about that for a change. At the start of the novel Lex pissed me off. All she was worried about was the shoplifting charge going on her record, couldn't she have thought about that BEFORE she shoplifted? Then her excuse for doing it was "I wanted to see if I could get away with it." Which wasn't the whole truth. Her friend Court talked her into it. When her mom managed to get her a job in exchange for the police not being called and this going on her record Lex does nothing but complain how it is going to interfere with her life. I did how ever grow to like her. Noah was too shy for his own good sometimes. This novel would have moved along sooner if he wasn't so shy. I did like him though, he was cute and sweet. 

There where a few things that frustrated me though. Lex was so afraid of telling Bryce that she was dating Noah, who two years earlier gotten Bryce kicked off the baseball team for the season for something that Bryce shouldn't have done in the first place. Bryce makes it all Noah's fault when really it was his own for being an ass. But she is afraid of telling him because he would be mad and not want to be her friend anymore. Really? You're going to ruin your happiness because your friend doesn't like your boyfriend? I feel like this was one of the biggest parts of this book, Bryce just needs to get over himself. 

I did enjoy Paper or Plastic, it was something light and fun I needed in between books with heavier plots. This book is perfect for people who really don't read much but do enjoy a cute love story. 

Rating: