Talk nerdy to me!

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

The Skinny: 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. – From Goodreads

BFF?: I think I preferred Maddie when she was her nerd self. She became so much more interesting! She was energetic, enthusiastic, smart! But then she’d go back to her popular self and get kinda… well… generic. Vanilla. Boooorrrrring! It was fun seeing her different sides but I really wish she had been more true to herself instead of solely one way or the other. That would have made her so much more well rounded as a person!

Readability: Very, very cute! It was light and fresh and fun… the perfect summer read!

Crush Level: 7
LARPing aside, Logan was a total cutie pie! He was a great mix of nerd and swoon. Why can’t I find a guy like this in real life? Most guys I know who are sort of nerdy ARE SORT OF NERDY. They look like they don’t understand the basics of grooming, they act weird and have intense discussions anime or dungeons and dragons at lunch… I mean, why can’t they be swoony and… okay, maybe I don’t really want a REAL nerdy guy. Unless he’s like Logan. 🙂

Bonus Points:
LARPing

Y’all… I had NO idea what this was until I read this book! I mean, I knew about role playing from movies like Role Models, but whhaaaaatttt? This was kind of epically nerdily awesome. I think if I had a really good group of friends who were nerdy I’d totally do this! (and tell no one)

Logan’s Mom

She totally wins the award for awesome mom of the year! I loved her oh so much and how supportive she got for her son! I won’t give much away because it’s better to be surprised by her, but let’s just say she added a TON to this book!

Commencement Speech: Was this book perfect? No. Was it memorable? So-so. Was it absolutely freaking positively adorkably cute? YES! I sometimes feel when I read contemporaries there’s always a MESSAGE, no matter how cute the book was. And it’s always a DEEP MESSAGE. And that’s fine and good, but sometimes I just want cuteness. I want a light, fun message that, while it resonates with me some, it just makes me smile. That’s how I felt about The Summer I Became a Nerd. It was just a cute message for people. Nothing deep and life changing.

Yearbook Quote: “Until I’m able to freely discuss who I think would win in a battle between Darth Vader and Lord Voldemort? (The answer obviously being Lord Voldemort. He’d Avada Kadavra Vader way before Vader could even think about the force choke move.)”

Superlatives – Most likely to destroy you with its elven magic crystal balls

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