The Miracle Girls Book

Sometimes I get these weird cravings for American High School books filled with clicheés and cheerleaders.
Yes, it's strange.
Whatever - this book was just the right one as it included all the things mentioned above plus it's christian and also had faith topics in it.
Let me start of with saying congrats to the authors!
I don't know how they write together, if they take turns or literally write together and think about each sentence but however they do it, they do it extremely well.
The writing is effortless and breezy, perfecting the tone of teenagers without being over the top.
Now. The characters.
They do seem very realistic, actually maybe a bit to realistic because they act like real people would, even if that annoyed me at some points.
Ana, the narrator, for example was so judgemental towards Riley at first and rather snarky.
The whole thing about Riley being a cheerleader (which led to some nasty comments from Ana) was rather hilarious in a sad way - why are cheerleaders always portrayed/viewed as the dumb blondes in most books and films?!
Ana is angry about being beaten by Riley grade-wise, especially since she's "only" a cheerleader, thus not allowed to be smart or so.
Grr. (But yeah, I wanted a book where people have clicheéd views on stuff, so I shouldn't complain...)
Further on, I was also really vexed about Ana's parents, especially her mother.
They were overprotective, which I do understand, given that Ana nearly died after she was born, but there is a line you can cross.
And after crossing that line you make your child a prisoner, practically.
There was so much Ana wasn't allowed to do, it was f-r-u-s-t-r-a-t-i-n-g but luckily it does get better.
What was even worse though was the parental pressure about school and uni applications.
There was a page where it's described how Ana gets ignored by her mother because she is only second best in her grade.
SHE GETS IGNORED!!
Reading this made me appreciate my parents even more haha.
It was fun though, reading this, also the annoying parts were annoying in the context of the story but didn't stop me enjoying this book.
Also - how cool is their youth group in church, so many of them in it, so many cool activities and proper worship time that goes on for a while (gotta love that!) plus a skiing trip together - I want!
This really is a cool christian YA "high school" book and I will continue the series tonight.
I wonder what else is going to happen to the miracle girls Ana, Zoe, Christine and Riley (yeah, they become friends despite Riley being a blonde cheerleader. Hah.)...
Try this series, it deserves way more recognition in YA land!