The A-List (The A-List Series #1)

by Zoey Dean

Overview

Welcome to The A-List, a wickedly funny and risqué paperback original novel that takes readers behind the scenes of the intoxicating world of Hollywood glitterati.

Seventeen-year-old Upper East Side blueblood Anna ("pronounced Aaaanah") Percy is on her way to Beverly Hills, California, where she'll live with her estranged dad for the rest of the school year while her mother travels to Europe with a friend. On the plane, Anna drinks too much champagne and gets hit on by record producer Rick Resnick. Luckily Princeton student Ben Birnbaum is there to save her and he invites Anna to famous actor Jackson Sharpe's wedding, where Anna meets the cast of rich and famous characters who are soon to be her classmates at Beverly Hills High. The fast times of Beverly Hill's most beautiful and glamorous people drive the page-turning action of this juicy new novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316041591
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/01/2008
Series:	Zoey Dean's A-List Series , #1
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	226,514
File size:	355 KB
Age Range:	15 - 17 Years

About the Author

Zoey Dean is the author of the national bestselling A-List and her adult novel How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls is now a CW original TV series entitled Privileged.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Beverly Hills: 90210 gets a fabulous face-lift for the Gossip Girl crowd in Zoey Dean's first sassy, sun-tanned installment of her Hollywood-centric The A-List.

Cover to cover with personalities you'll love (and love to loathe), Dean's West Coast adventure tells the tale of Anna Cabot Percy, a well-to-do New Yorker who heads to L.A. for an internship -- and learns about Tinsel Town the hard way. Out to revamp her good-girl image while she's there, Anna gets sloshed on the L.A.-bound plane and winds up meeting Princeton-going hunk Ben Birnbaum, who almost makes Anna a member of the Mile-High Club (thank goodness for federal regulations). Ben also asks Anna to celeb Jackson Sharpe's New Year's Eve wedding, and when Anna finds herself arm-in-arm with him before Hollywood's glitterati, she learns that being with Ben means fierce competition from Samantha Sharpe -- Jackson's label-loving, snappy daughter -- and her vicious friend, Cammie Sheppard. Over the course of a few days, Anna discovers plenty about these two vixens and even gets an unpleasant surprise from Ben himself, but with plenty of "new-and-improved Anna" defenses up her sleeve, this girl is set to be the next star on the A-List.

More deliciously sinful than the strudel at Spago and as marvelous as a Stella McCartney frock, Dean's A-List is a trashy treat that will keep you glued to your lounge. The sharp-tongued characters are definitely on a par with Cecily von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl, but their L.A. demeanor and knack for late-night partygoing will remind you that this brat pack is another, slightly groovier breed. If you're looking for feel-good California dreamin', you'd better take something first with this one. Shana Taylor

bn.com

This debut novel may be just the ticket for Gossip Girls fans. Perennial good girl Anna Percy ("Anna had yet to do one truly nasty thing") moves from New York City to her father's mansion in Los Angeles determined to reinvent herself. Things seem to be going well when the 17-year-old meets and makes out with handsome Princeton student Ben Birnbaum on the plane. Even better, he invites her to the New Years Eve wedding that night of a famous actor, Jackson Sharpe. But when her father fails to pick her up at the airport, Anna's new glamorous life takes a downward turn, made much worse when she meets Ben's nasty friends at the wedding. Covering a four-day period, the author cycles through various perspectives, from Anna to Ben's friends, including Jackson Sharpe's insecure daughter Sam, and Sam's friends, cruel Cammie and ditsy Dee, all of whom secretly attempt to land Ben for their own. Readers will likely be caught up in the glamorous world created here, full of fancy cars, decadent parties and designer clothes (Sam has designer's assistants "to help [her] with the selection process"). But, while Dean raises some intriguing plot points (Why did Ben abandon Anna on his father's yacht? Why is a former child prodigy now driving Anna's father's car? Will Anna's sister check herself out of rehab?), the audience may be frustrated by all the loose ends that point strongly to a sequel, if only by way of explanation. Ages 15-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 9 Up-Moving from Manhattan's elite world to "Hollyweird" presents Anna with quite a culture shock, but one that she's ready for. White gloves and tea give way to her drugged-out dad in the gazebo and a Hollywood celebrity's wedding where she is introduced to Ahi rolls. She discovers that all is not without controversy in LaLa land, and that beautiful girls are not always welcome in the inner circle, especially those who pick up the hunk whom all the insiders are lusting after. After surviving the evil competitors, bad yogurt, and a vengeful seatmate on the plane, Anna proves that gorgeous good girls can, and do, survive in L.A. All of those nasty, high-society types that populate the "Gossip Girl" series (Little, Brown) can be found here in bikinis and Oakleys instead of wool pashminas and Blahnik boots. Unfortunately, this book tries to be more than the others of its genre by making frequent use of words and phrases that don't fit the beach-baby scene, such as "-she wasn't one to snivel over the vagaries of her own existence." Fans of the series will flock to this book, but they may be a tad disappointed with the replay.-Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Prairie du Sac, WI Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In this fast-paced but uninspired soap opera, 17-year-old Anna Cabot Percy, an elegant, self-contained New York upper-crust WASP, goes to Los Angeles to visit her distant father and cast off her good-girl image. On the plane she meets a handsome, charming, rich Princeton freshman who invites her to be his guest at a movie star's opulent wedding. But what Anna doesn't know is that his invitation stirs the ire of the most powerful (and indeed selfish, unhappy, and unpleasant) teens at the wedding, the so-called A-List girls, who aren't about to let an interloper poach on their turf. As with the Gossip Girl books, adult readers will be struck by how alone these kids are-there is barely a caring adult in sight-while teens will get the thrill of seeing how the super-rich live, coupled with the heartening insight that money doesn't guarantee happiness. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews