The Accidental Beauty Queen: the perfect summer romcom

by Teri Wilson

'Teri Wilson is the Queen of Romantic Comedy!' Sarah Morgan

'The Accidental Beauty Queen effortlessly delivers on all of the charm and emotion you hope for in a romantic comedy. Utterly enchanting' Lauren Layne, New York Times bestselling author

In this charming romantic comedy, perfect for fans of Miss Congeniality, critically acclaimed author Teri Wilson (creator of Hallmark movies Unleashing Mr Darcy and Marrying Mr Darcy) shows us that sometimes being pushed out of your comfort zone leads you to the ultimate prize...

Charlotte Gorman loves her job as a school librarian, and is perfectly content to experience life through the pages of her books. Which couldn't be more opposite from her identical twin sister. Ginny, an Instagram-famous beauty pageant contestant, whose biggest aspiration is to win Miss American Treasure.

However, when Ginny has an allergic reaction that swells her face and could ruin her last chance of winning the crown, Charlotte suddenly finds herself stepping into her sister's towering stilettos.

Woefully unprepared for the glittery world of pageants, Charlotte is mortified by the experience. But as she discovers there's more to her fellow contestants than just wanting a sparkly crown, Charlotte realises she has a whole new motivation for winning.

'The perfect recipe for a feel-good read: Mix one part Mr. Darcy, one part sisterhood, one bulldog named Buttercup and add a hefty sprinkle of glitter. I laughed, cried, and swooned and even felt better in a bikini after reading it!' Lindsay Emory, critically acclaimed author of The Royal Runaway

**Featured in Entertainment Weekly's 'Fiction and movie love stories that make the perfect Valentine's Day Pair': Read The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson; Watch Miss Congeniality**

• ISBN10: 0349422370
• ISBN13: 9780349422374
• Publish Date: 4 December 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Piatkus Books
• Edition: Digital original
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 80000
• Language: English

Reviews

[EBookObsessed]

Entertaining and fun. The Accidental Beauty Queen is all about love; not just old-fashioned romance but sisterly love and more important, that you first need to love yourself.

Charlotte Gorman considered herself the brains of the family and above the shallow beauty obsession of her beauty pageant driven twin, Ginny. But when Ginny suffers an allergic reaction the night before the start of the Miss American Treasure pageant, she convinces Charlotte to step in for her. This is Ginny's last chance to win the same pageant that their mother won in 1975.  But when the woman looking back in the mirror after her pageant makeover is that of her sister, Ginny, Charlotte learns that her supposed self-confidence is a fraud and that her whole life has been spent denying her jealously over her prettier twin.

Charlotte and Ginny were your usual identical twins, but after their mother died of cancer, their father just didn't have it in him to match their looks each day, and the twins started developing their own personalities. When Ginny started to garner all the attention with her looks and her desire to follow their mother's legacy and compete in beauty pageants, and Charlotte feels that no one really sees her when Ginny is around. Charlotte turned towards her beloved books for solace and friendship. Charlotte became a school librarian, sharing her love of books with the children, while her sister continued to chase the same crown that their mother won, Miss American Treasure.

Charlotte arrives in Florida to support her sister's big chance and also to check out the new Harry Potter theme-park. Ginny's platform is pet adoption, and adopting French Bulldog, Buttercup, is part of that platform. Yet it is Charlotte who keeps having to walk her.  It also gives Charlotte an opportunity to meet and flirt with a handsome stranger who is walking his own dog named Hamlet. They share several moments that only a true book-lover would understand and appreciate.

Even though Charlotte and Ginny shared a lovely dinner before the preliminaries begin, it was only Ginny that suffered an allergic reaction to something they ate. Charlotte doesn't want anything to do with the pageant but after some soul searching, she can't deny her sister her chance at her dream. Ginny gives Charlotte a full pageant-level makeover and when Charlotte sees her sister looking back at her reflection, it pokes hard at a devastating wound that Charlotte fights to ignore, the fact that her fiance was going to marry her to get close to her prettier sister, hoping to some day trade-up.

In participating in the pageant and actually meeting the other contestants, Charlotte realizes that she has misjudged the contestants are superficial, back-biters. Most of the other women are supportive of one another and have goals beyond winning crowns.   It is Charlotte who does the most soul searching realizing that she has some growing up to do.

While Charlotte adjusts her opinion of the pageant participants and her sister as well, she also comes to the depressing realization that this time she has created the same issue in her romance with Gray Beckham as she had with her fiance, Adam.   Not only has she created a conflict since Gray is one of the pageant's judges, but in flirting with Gray and then posing as her sister, any feelings Gray has will be for her pretty, pageant participant Ginny persona rather than for Charlotte herself.

The longer Charlotte competes on her sister's behalf, the more the lines blurs between competing for  Ginny and competing for Charlotte herself and when Ginny finally recovers enough to step back into the contest, Charlotte isn't certain she is ready to step back out of the limelight.

I enjoyed this story.  It was a quick, light read with some fun scenes.   Book lovers will enjoy all the Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter and other favorite novel references.  I would have liked a few more pages developing and solidifying the romance between Gray and Charlotte.  They had some great book-lover moments and you could feel their attraction, but it was a bit of a jump from flirty attraction to love of my life since their romance was secondary to the story of the twins bonding over the pageant and healing Charlotte's wound created by her fiance's desire for her sister.

This is definitely worth picking up for a little fun.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

See more at EBookObsessed.com

[Sam@WLABB]

My love for Hallmark movies is no secret, and when I saw that Teri Wilson had been involved with several particularly wonderful Hallmark films, I knew I had to read this book. I was expecting something light and fun, but still sweet and thoughtful, and Wilson more than met my expectations.

• Pro: I loved Charlotte. She was a bookish, nerdy librarian. How could I NOT love her?

• Pro: The exploration of sibling relationships is something I always enjoy, and this one was made that much more interesting by involving identical twin sisters and a really BIG secret, that was hampering their relationship.

• Pro: Grey was such a wonderful and swoony hero. Not only was he a billionaire, but he was also a literature lover. I was as dazzled by him as Charlotte was when he spoke Darcy to her.

• Pro: I am telling you, the pageant scenes gave me this awesome Miss Congeniality vibe. They were fun, and I liked that Charlotte started to see this world in a different, more positive way. I loved the sisterhood side of the pageant Wilson exposed, and I always like seeing women supporting women.

• Pro: This was quite a journey for Charlotte. She not only learned a lot about pageants and her sister, but she learned a lot about herself, and I really enjoyed getting to see her evolve over the course of the story.

• Pro: There were all these little things that delighted me in this book. From butter beer to Buttercup, the adorable French Bulldog, I found all these little touches that added to my enjoyment.

Overall: This book was sweet and charming, as well as hilarious and heartwarming. I smiled, I laughed, I shed some tears, and in the end, I was left with a smile on my face and a full heart.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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