Review: How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer

Title: How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True
Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Exp. Pub.: April 23, 2013
Publisher: Balzer & Bray/Harperteen
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

From Sarah Strohmeyer, author of Smart Girls Get What They Want, comes this romantic comedy about one girl's summer job from hell. Think The Devil Wears Prada set in Disney World.

When cousins Zoe and Jess land summer internships at the Fairyland Kingdom theme park, they are sure they've hit the jackpot. With perks like hot Abercrombie-like Prince Charmings and a chance to win the coveted $25,000 Dream & Do grant, what more could a girl want?

Once Zoe arrives, however, she's assigned to serve "The Queen"-Fairyland's boss from hell. From spoon-feeding her evil lapdog caviar, to fetching midnight sleeping tonics, Zoe fears she might not have what it takes to survive the summer, much less win the money.

Soon backstabbing interns, a runaway Cinderella, and cutthroat competition make Zoe's job more like a nightmare than a fairy tale. What will happen when Zoe is forced to choose between serving The Queen and saving the prince of her dreams?

Fairy tales aren't always all giggles and glitter.  Not when there's a naughty prince on the loose, breaking rules and causing havoc.  Zoe just wants to help her cousin/BFF win the coveted prize, the Dream & Do grant, but with all of these obsticles will she be able to accomplish what she dreams of?

Zoe was instantly likeable to me.  She was awkward and fidgety and clueless at times, though she succeeded in getting the job done!  Then we have super quiet and shy Jess... yet that girl was tough as nails when she had to be.  The other characters were equally wonderful, all unique in their own way.  A wonderful cast to tell an adorable story.  I don't want to go into specifics on the characters, as it will give away too much of the story.  But trust me, you will fall for the awesome ones and hate the horrible ones just as much as I did.  ;)

What stood out to me the most in the story was the friendship between cousins Zoe and Jess.  Even when times got tough and other feuding cast members accused Zoe of the unthinkable, including alterior motives against her BFF Jess, she saw right through the lies and stood effortlessly by her friend until the bitter end.  Friends like that are hard to find.  Jess and Zoe had been through a lot in the past, and their remarkable friendship stood strong through it all.

This story was cute and bubbly, had a bit of a romance brewing, yet included a fun mystery aspect as well.  I found the hunt with Zoe for the true culprit quite entertaining.  And I can't forget to mention the horribly evil Queen and equally evil pooch, Tinker Bell.  The story wouldn't have been complete without these horrible characters to make Zoe's internship that much harder to handle. 

Strohmeyer is a new author to me, and after this read I will definitely be looking into her other books.  As the description says, this is most definitely The Devil Wears Prada set in Disney World.  Perfect comparison.  Drama-ridden, cut-throat interns all in a fairy tale setting.  Can't go wrong! :)

When he handed me the tongs to the fruit bowl and said, "Man, I could eat a horse," the best I could manage was a witty, "Yeah."

At that point in my suavity, I knocked a strawberry to the ground, picked it up, dusted it off, and ate it just to show I could be hard-ass that way.

"Seems your attempts to do me in have failed, huh?" I whispered to Tinker Bell, who was snoozing on her purple satin cushion.

She popped open a tiny, evil black eye.  Grrrrr, she growled, so softly, it sounded more like a snore.

Little did I know that, within hours, this eight-pound fluff ball of evil would set in motion a series of events intended to trigger my demise.

"The images she got back were blurry because of a glitch, but they managed to capture a guy who was slim and dark..."

"And tall and sexy?" He kept his expression dead straight. "Because if he's so hot he broke the camera, then I was definitely the dude." He help up his hands. "Guilty as charged."

He dropped his backpack onto the rocks, crossed his arms over his head, and pulled off his T-shirt. I tried not to look, but he was a Prince Charming, after all, and let's just say he met the minimum requirements.