Book Review - The Law of Tall Girls - Joanne Macgregor

Here's another YA cover featuring shoes.  Not my first review/recommendation and probably not the last with a couple shot of shoes.

Wait... why am I rambling about cover shots of shoes?  It caught my attention, didn't it?

Joanne Macgregor's The Law of Tall Girls is simple.    Tall guys should date tall girls and not short girls.  After all, short girls can date average sized guys but it looks weird of a tall girl dates somebody shorter then her.  Although, Peyton reasoned, it looks weird when a tall guy dates a too-short girl.

It all starts with a bet placed shortly before Peyton's Senior Year.  Her co-workers bet her that she can't get a tall guy to kiss her.  Then date her.  And go to prom with her.

We are supposed to believe that these older co-workers and a business owner are willing to bet over kisses and dating...

Regardless, Peyton accepts the first bet.  This throws her in the path of 6'3 Jay Young, new guy and absolutely attached to the short Faye.

Tori, bitter about Peyton winning that first bet offers double or nothing.  Four dates AND prom and Peyton has all school year to accomplish this.

Peyton, in desperate need of money, accepts.

Using her best friend Chloe as a reference, she creates a List of Tall Guys.

On her first date, she discovers that Tim is the class spy.  He helps supply an additional name to her list AND gives her information to help her avoid the Already-Taken Jay.  Tim goes beyond her request and gives her a stack of information.

To add to the complications - the bet, her crush on Jay - Peyton's mother is "sick" and Peyton enjoys drama.  So, when there is a snag in the drama casting, Peyton finds herself paired off with Jay...


Honestly, there is so much going on in this story.

Peyton is a divorced kid living with her mom and with a distant relationship with her dad.  She's teased and bullied over her height (over 6 feet) and has trouble finding clothes thay fit.

Even her co-workers - supposed adults - make her feel badly about herself.  I keep going back and forth over the believability of this.  Then I remember how immature some of my own former co-workers acted...

This is a loaded story.  Secrets.  Bullying.  Finding and becoming yourself.  And it's done really well.  Around the 70% mark I was reading it at the gym, stopped my treadmill, and kept reading for three more minutes until I had finished the chapter!

However this particular bet premise...  A $800 bet... This is really the only part of the story that I'm having trouble with.  I think the story could have worked without it.  Or without that outrageous money amount.  Maybe if a different character - one of her classmates - had made the challenge instead.

I enjoyed the story.  I believed the development between Jay and Peyton.  How Macgregor showed that "normal" is a relative term.  I just enjoyed it more when that bet wasn't referenced.

Now, keep in mind - 1. I finished the book.  2. I wrote a blog post about it.  I don't do either of these things if the book sucks. 

With that in mind.

4 out of 5 Goodreads stars.  Personal stars 4.5

Happy Reading

Alicia