Review: The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

Title: The Accidental Beauty Queen 

Author:  Teri Wilson
Publisher: Gallery Books

Publishing Date:  December 4th, 2018

Pages: 304
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance, Chic Lit

Series:  Stand Alone
Source:  Audio

 

Charlotte Gorman loves her job as an elementary school librarian, and is content to experience life through the pages of her books. Which couldn’t be more opposite from her identical twin sister. Ginny, an Instagram-famous beauty pageant contestant, has been chasing a crown since she was old enough to enunciate the words world peace, and she’s not giving up until she gets the title of Miss American Treasure. And Ginny’s refusing to do it alone this time.
She drags Charlotte to the pageant as a good luck charm, but the winning plan quickly goes awry when Ginny has a terrible, face-altering allergic reaction the night before the pageant, and Charlotte suddenly finds herself in a switcheroo the twins haven’t successfully pulled off in decades.
Woefully unprepared for the glittery world of hair extensions, false eyelashes, and push-up bras, Charlotte is mortified at every unstable step in her sky-high stilettos. But as she discovers there’s more to her fellow contestants than just wanting a sparkly crown, Charlotte realizes she has a whole new motivation for winning.

I was perusing through E Galleys one day and found this book. It sounded very cute and I just loved the cover. I have been attempting to add chic lit and adult contemporary romances to my library of books and decided this should be a good one to start with. It really was. I really really enjoyed this book. It has some great laugh moments, some tearful moments, feel good moments, and book nerd moments. I loved the characters and I adored the story. It was just fun. A great read. 

Charlotte is a down to earth librarian and quite a book nerd ( which comes with the territory of a librarian I supposed. She has a nice quiet life and does enjoy it. Her twin sister, Ginny, is a pageant girl who is trying to follow in their late mother's footsteps. Ginny is after the most important crown in her life. The day before it all starts, she has an allergic reaction. Instead of quitting and going home, she has Charlotte to step in and pretend to be her. With lots of training Ginny is sure Charlotte can pull this off. Charlotte isn't so sure. During the training, the dolling up, Charlotte starts to enjoy herself and has some fun...she also finds herself in a web of lies that will hurt everyone involved. 

This book truly was amazing. I was hooked from the very start and just couldn't put it down throughout the entire read. I loved the characters, the story, the romance. Oh the romance. That was so fun and swoony. I really can't think of anything I didn't enjoy about this read. 

Charlotte was a great main character. I adored how much of a book nerd she was and really just felt so connected to her from the beginning through this passion of hers. She was very down to earth, even if she did have a few hang ups in her personality, I found she was very easy to love. She didn't always make the right decisions and did find herself making some selfish decisions even though she really didn't want to. She really just wanted to make her sister happy. 

Ginny wasn't my favorite character but she added so much depth and realism to the story. She was a bit obsessed but I did find the reason for the obsession of beauty pageants to be understandable and I felt for her wanting to follow in her mother's footsteps. She was quited good with the entire pageant thing too. She did have some growing to do and of course in the end I loved her as much as I loved Charlotte. 

I think what I really loved about this story was the story of sisterhood and family. I always love family drama and family bonding over any other relationships in books. I find them to be heartwarming and heartwarming this book was... with a few laughs for good measure. 

The writing was just wonderful and the setting was done so well I feel I know so much more about beauty pageants now. I really didn't realize how much was put in to them. I also appreciated the emphasis on the fact these pageants were also about inner beauty and positive body love. Not just trying to be the  most beautiful, but trying to the most as a woman. 

The romance in this book was really something good. The love interest was just so perfect and lovable and swoony. I am not a huge straight on romance kind of girl and I felt the romance in this book was just right for me to be down with the idea. It wasn't the focus but there wasn't a lack of either. It was just right. 

The ending was beautiful and yes I shed a couple of tears and found myself to just be smiling ear to ear wishing I could continue their story. I will miss these characters dearly. 

A great read for those that love a good heartwarming, sister bonding, swoony romance, book full of crazy antics kind of read. 

Teri Wilson is the author/creator of the Hallmark Channel Original Movies UNLEASHING MR. DARCY, MARRYING MR. DARCY, THE ART OF US and NORTHERN LIGHTS OF CHRISTMAS, based on her book SLEIGH BELL SWEETHEARTS. She is a double finalist for the prestigious RITA Award for excellence in romantic fiction for her novels THE PRINCESS PROBLEM and ROYALLY WED. She has a major weakness for cute animals, pretty dresses and Audrey Hepburn films, and she loves following the British royal family. Visit her at www.teriwilson.net or on Twitter @TeriWilsonauthr.