When Alex leaves for the fabulous Lycée de Monceau, she
knows she's going to be the most popular girl there. The French
school offers American high school students a special opportunity
if they are especially dedicated learners of French. Alex's
(absent) father was French, so she has it in the bag. Going to
Paris for her is about meeting boys (American ones, though) and
shopping.

Alex first meets PJ in the airport, when PJ is begging at the
counter for a ticket to Paris. Astonished, Alex upgrades herself to
first class and gives PJ her coach ticket. She can tell right away
that the disheveled PJ will not be around long, so there's no point
in making friends. Zack, on the other hand, is a sweet Southern boy
and is the type of guy Alex wants to know. He becomes the Will to
her Grace --- or, maybe more accurately, given Alex's shopping
habits, the Will to her Karen.

Olivia arrives in Paris ready for school and for ballet, and is
soon accepted at a prestigious ballet school. She becomes friends
with both PJ and Alex, but PJ and Alex can't seem to get along.

When everyone meets their host parents and they start classes,
the real adventures --- and drama --- begin. Olivia desperately
misses her boyfriend, but having a long-distance relationship is
hard, especially when there seems to be so many other guys
interested in you. Alex can't curb her shopping habit and has a
shock when her mother cuts off her credit card. PJ has a huge
secret she wants to run away from, but her host parents seem to
have one as well. And Zack wants to take the opportunity in Paris
to find his first boyfriend.

BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS alternates its narrators, so you can see
Paris from four different points of view. Peppered with French
phrases, it will instantly incite in you a need to go visit the
city for yourself.

I had mixed feelings about this novel, which begins a series
that will continue in the fall. It's not just a wannabe Gossip
Girl or The Clique, and for that I'm grateful. At
times, though, it feels as if it’s trying to be the same
thing, just set in a new place. Still, I want to think that
BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS is more than that, and in many ways it is,
because its characters have better vocabularies, obviously do well
enough in school to deserve the opportunity to be in Paris, and
most of them have more interesting hobbies than shopping. But
coupled with the intelligent lexicon is the somewhat obvious plot
and juvenile construction, with predictable suspense about each
character worrying that another will find out his or her terrible
secret.

That doesn't make BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS an unworthy read, however.
The book is entertaining and mostly intriguing, and the romance of
its setting makes it hard to put down. It does end in medias
res, so we'll see what the sequel has to offer.

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