The Fruit of My Lipstick (Shelley Adina)
Rating: 
New Yorker Gillian Chang starts her second term at posh SpencerAcademy boarding school in San Francisco prepared to focus on her studies, her faith, and her friends. She plays a dozen musical instruments and can recite the periodic table of the elements backward. She’s totally prepared for everything–except love!
She’s falling hard for Lucas Hayes, who isn’t even a senior yet and is already aiming at a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford. The problem is, she never seems to be able to measure up and be the girlfriend he wants. He’s under a lot of pressure from his parents to achieve–maybe that’s why he’s short-tempered sometimes. But even a thick-skinned girl like Gillian can only take so much.
With her heart on the line, Gillian conceals more and more from her friends. So when she’s accused of selling exam answer sheets, even her girlfriends, Lissa and Carly wonder if it’s true. Can Gillian hang on to her integrity — and her faith — when she loses her heart to Lucas?
After reading It’s All About Us, the first book in this series, I quickly dived into the second one. The Fruit of My Lipstick focuses on Gillian Chang, Lissa’s roommate, as she falls in love with the smartest guy in school, Lucas Hayes. At first I was really amused at how the two of them started, and I really thought they’d make a great pair, but then Gillian starts spending a bit too much time with Lucas and started changing herself just so she could keep her first boyfriend. She gets all defensive when her friends point out some weird things she’s doing to keep Lucas, like dropping her graphics design class and going for a personal trainer just because Lucas made a comment about other thin girls.
In the same way that I was annoyed at Lissa in the previous book for being so dense, I was annoyed at Gillian here for not listening to her friends and then saying things to hurt them in her defense. But, as far as all the series’ characters are concerned, even if I get annoyed at them, I still find myself rooting for them and hoping that they’d recover from whatever mess they’d get into.
This novel touches more serious things, like racism, academic competition, cheating and even abuse. I loved the resolution — it seemed a bit unbelievable but really hilarious, and I’m glad that the truth came out for everyone. :)
Oh, and can I say that I liked Lissa better in this book? She seemed less shallow and more likable — and possibly even more real — in this book than in her own.
If you’re going to read this book, I suggest you pick up the first book in the series as there’s lots of references made there. I am really starting to love this series, and I can’t wait for the next one which is Carly’s story. The title looks really exciting too — Be Strong and Curvaceous. I wonder if there will be a mention of diet pills there? Hm.
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