The Popularity Rules

The meek don't inherit a thing. Nice girls win nothing but regret. Virtue is wholly overrated.

If you don't do it, some other girl will.

Kat Elliot has spent her life fighting against phony schmoozing-and it's led her nowhere. A rebellious music journalist, Kat is down on her dreams when her ex?best friend Lauren swishes back into town. Ten years ago, Lauren dumped Kat for high school gold: popularity. Now Lauren wants to make amends by teaching Kat the secret to her success: The Popularity Rules, a decades-old rule book that transformed Lauren that fateful summer.

Broke and desperate, Kat reluctantly agrees to a total makeover-what does she have to lose? She's gotten nowhere on her own. Maybe becoming someone new is just what she needs.

Twenty-six-year-old Abby McDonald grew up in Sussex, England, and studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University. She began writing at college, becoming music editor of The Oxford Student and completing her first novel. She has since worked as a music journalist and entertainment critic, interviewing acts as diverse as LeAnn Rimes, Kings of Leon, and Marilyn Manson. Her writing has appeared in the NME, Plan B magazine, CosmoGirl!, and a variety of websites and blogs. She is the author of The Liberation of Alice Love and three books for teens: Sophomore Switch; Boys, Bears & A Serious Pair of Hiking Boots; and The Anti-Prom. You can find her online at www.abbymcdonald.com and twitter.com/abbymcdonald.