Tempestuous (Twisted Lit #1) by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Title: Tempestuous
Author: Kim Askew and Amy Helmes
Publisher: Merit Press
Publication Date: December 18, 2012

Recently banished, unfairly, by the school’s popular crowd, former “it girl,” Miranda Prospero, finds herself in a brave new world: holding dominion amongst a rag-tag crew of geeks and misfits where she works at the Hot-Dog Kabob in the food court of her local mall.

When the worst winter storm of the season causes mall workers and last-minute shoppers to be snowed-in for the night, Miranda seizes the opportunity to get revenge against the catty clique behind her social exile. With help from her delightfully dweeby coworker, Ariel, and a sullen loner named Caleb who works at the mall’s nearby gaming and magic shop, Miranda uses charm and trickery to set things to right during this spirited take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Tempestuous  had all of the key elements of a good romantic comedy--meaning that it was really cute and all, but it would never happen in real life. The ending was a bit too perfect, and the characters were a bit too cliche. But in spite of that, I still enjoyed it.

It was a good read, because it took my mind away from all the books I've been reading lately--all dealing with rough issues and hard lives. But this cut me a break from all that--sort of. There were a few tense moments in this book--most notably, being snowed in for the night. Which would suck. And all of the delightful instances that again, would never, ever, ever happen. Ever.

As I said before, the characters were a bit cliche. Especially Ariel, because it's like, the law of young adult literature for the protagonist to have a quirky best friend that's completely innocent and naive. I did think that Miranda was an pretty good character, despite being cliched, and that Caleb pretty much avoided cliche completely, but they could've had a bit more character development.

This is one of those books that are good fluff, but you don't actually remember much about it after reading. All in all, this book is exactly what it claims to be. A fresh take on Shakespeare's The Tempest. And if you've ever read the Bard's work, you'll know that he liked being dramatic. And that character quality was not one of his best qualities.

*This book was provided by the publisher for review.