Review: Alterations

Alterations by Stephanie Scott
Grade: C
Release date: December 6, 2016
An e-galley was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration.
Summary: If anyone saw the prom boards Amelia Blanco makes on her favorite fashion app, they'd think Ethan Laurenti was her boyfriend. They wouldn't know that all the plans she's made for them are just dreams, and that she's the girl who watches him from the kitchen while her parents cook for his famous family. 

When Amelia's abuelita enrolls her in a month-long fashion internship in NYC, Amelia can't imagine leaving Miami--and Ethan--for that long. As soon as she gets to New York, however, she finds a bigger world and new possibilities. She meets people her own age who can actually carry on a conversation about stitching and design. Her pin boards become less about prom with Ethan and more about creating her own style. By the time she returns to Miami, Amelia feels like she can accomplish anything, and surprises herself by agreeing to help Ethan's awkward, Steve-Jobs-wannabe brother, Liam, create his own fashion app. 

As Liam and Amelia get closer, Ethan realizes that this newly confident, stylish girl may be the one for him after all . . . even though he has a reality TV star girlfriend he conveniently keeps forgetting about. The "new and improved" Amelia soon finds herself in between two brothers, a whole lot of drama, and choice she never dreamed she'd have to make.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: If you love cute, fluffy romances, Alterations is the book for you. Except...I tend to like those types of books, and Alterations was not a hit for me.
I think my biggest problems had to do with Ethan, the dialogue, and Amelia's fashion interests.
The plotline with Ethan felt unoriginal, and I was just ready for Amelia to warm up to Liam and really notice him and stop focusing on his obnoxious brother. He added so much unnecessary drama after the first half or so of the story. The dialogue felt very unrealistic at times. That's something I've been working on in my fiction writing class this fall, and so it's becoming glaringly apparent to me that, while some things might sound like a good thing to say, people wouldn't really say them (especially teenage boys). Amelia talked about fashion, and she seemed to back up her words with support of why she liked it, but I couldn't feel her passion. I didn't fully grasp why fashion was her "thing." 
Other small notes: Haylo was a weird character for me; her personality didn't seem well-formed because it seemed to flip-flop at times. I did like how Amelia had to own up to the lies she told her New York friends. And I really liked Liam and Amelia together.

The Verdict: This one might be a miss honestly.

Buy: Barnes & Noble  Amazon

Will I be adding this book to my library?: Besides my e-galley, no.