Gorgeous

From Barnes & Noble

Becky Randle is a motherless 18-year-old trailer-park waif with a major self-esteem problem. When world-acclaimed fashion designer Tom Kelly offers to create a personal wardrobe for her, she first suspects that this Cinderella transformation is actually just a ruse to humiliate her. Before long though, the newly-minted Rebecca Randle is gracing the covers of fashion magazines and attracting the attention of Hollywood stars. When a British prince comes a'calling, Becky/Rebecca must begin to search inside herself for the girl she has been missing.

From the Publisher

"I loved Paul Rudnick's GORGEOUS, which I found impossible to put down. When I wasn't laughing out loud (which was often), I was wiping away a tiny tear. Becky Randle will soon become the queen of your heart." - Meg Cabot

"Paul Rudnick is a champion of truth and love and great wicked humor, whom we ignore at our peril." - David Sedaris

Starred Review: Publisher's Weekly
"Suppose fairy tales came true. Suppose an ordinary teenage girl from a Missouri trailer park was suddenly on the cover of Vogue, dating a Hollywood hunk, and possibly in line to be the next queen of England? That’s what happens to 18-year-old Becky Randle in playwright/screenwriter Rudnick’s YA debut, an inspired mashup of familiar stories—commoner becomes princess, ugly duckling turns beautiful—made new. Instead of three wishes, Becky, rechristened Rebecca, receives three dresses from reclusive super-designer Tom Kelly, who knew Becky’s late mother. The ensembles transform Becky into nothing less than the most beautiful woman in the world—“Once I caught sight of my reflection I was riveted, hopelessly enraptured, as if I was watching the most impossibly glamorous car accident, or the birth of the baby Jesus, if Jesus had been the world’s first supermodel”—with a couple catches. With writing that’s hilarious, profane, and profound (often within a single sentence), Rudnick casts a knowing eye on our obsession with fame, brand names, and royalty to create a feel-good story about getting what you want without letting beauty blind you to what’s real."

“Acute, wickedly funny observations on appearance and identity punctuate this sprawling, caustic fairy tale that cheerfully skewers the fashion and film worlds and their celebrity-culture spawn.

Something magical will soon befall checkout clerk Becky Randle, 18, her mother tells her, making Becky promise she’ll say yes to it. After her mother’s death, the mysterious yet ubiquitous designer Tom Kelly flies Becky to New York, proposing to create three dresses for her guaranteed to make her the most beautiful woman on the planet. With, at best, average looks, Becky’s understandably skeptical, but Kelly delivers, and Rebecca is born. Though Rebecca’s gorgeous, confident and smart, Becky stubbornly hangs onto her identity (she sees her glamorous alter ego in mirrors only when others are present). Supermodel Rebecca lands a movie role alongside the star Becky’s crushed on since middle school (veteran screenwriter Rudnick’s film scenes are hilarious). Soon, smitten with Rebecca, the heir to the English throne captures Becky’s heart—but which of her is he in love with? While Becky’s voice and cultural referents are far too sophisticated and mature for a teenager raised in a Missouri trailer park, her fears and hopes are universal.

A Cinderella story with a difference, Becky’s journey to reconcile her inner household drudge and outer princess starts where most fairy tales end.”

-          Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Publishers Weekly