Review of Notable by Marni Bates

Title/Author: Notable (Smith High #3) by Marni Bates
Publisher/Date published: K-Teen, October 29th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: I take no prisoners...

I'm Chelsea Halloway and I will happily destroy your social life if you mess with me. Just ask anyone. There is no situation I can't handle. Divorcing parents? No problem. An ex-boyfriend who wants to date Smith High School's biggest geek instead of me? Just a matter of time before I can make him see reason. At least, until my parents decide to ship me off on a study abroad trip to Cambodia...

Now instead of being admired as the queen of the Notables, I'm stuck with a bunch of college students who don't take me seriously, and a professor who accidentally landed himself on the wrong side of a drug lord. And it's up to me to get us all out of the country alive - even the annoying jerk with the green eyes who won't stop calling me "princess."

Oh yeah, what could possibly go wrong?

So I really liked Invisible, the second book in this series and was really excited to see what Chelsea's side of the story would be! And while I liked Notable, I wasn't as invested as I was with Invisible.

Chelsea is the Queen Bee of Smith High and now she's being shipped off to Cambodia of all places. I'm still not entirely sure how her parents figured this would be a good idea... I mean, it's not as if she ever expressed any interest in something like this. And Cambodia doesn't seem like the safest of places to ship your teen who easily gets into trouble to. There's a serious case of bad parenting going on here and I didn't like it.

I like Chelsea. She's no-nonsense, smart and doesn't take crap from anyone. And I hated that her parents made her feel unsure about herself and mostly that her mother made her believe that she wasn't intelligent. Because you know what, she may not be a rocket scientist, but Chelsea is smart. And nobody, especially not one of your parents, should ever make you feel otherwise. So boo Chelsea's mom!

I liked that Chelsea slowly learns to work with the group and realises not everything that annoyed her at first was so bad in the end. I like that she really grew throughout the novel and used her strengths to the advantage of the group.
That being said, I thought the events with the drugs and the dealings with the druglord were unlikely. I mean, seriously, I was kind of rolling my eyes at how they got into the whole mess. And I didn't really see why they wouldn't call for help instead of trying to make it all better themselves. So yeah, ridiculous events, but satisfying character growth for the main character.

I thought the love interest was such a pompous ass at first, but later he grew on me. And I was rooting for them to get together! It was nice to see Chelsea's relationship with Logan from Chelsea's POV and see what happened and not just what the rumor mill had been circulating about them. And I liked that we got to see a little of Jane again, cause I love Jane!

All in all, this was a cute, quick read, but with slightly ridiculous events. It made for light reading and I enjoyed it, but I liked Invisible a lot better!

My rating: 3 stars