The Bad and the Beautiful

Chrystal Falls #3

by Caroline B. Cooney

Genres: Young Adult, Romance

196 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1985

About the author

Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when "the best teacher I ever had in my life" made writing her main focus. "He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. I started writing then and never stopped!"
When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people -- with remarkable results. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. "In a suspense novel, you can count on action."
To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. She often organizes what she calls a "plotting game," in which students work together to create plots for stories. Caroline lives in Westbrook, Connecticut and when she's not writing she volunteers at a hospital, plays piano for the school musicals and daydreams!
- Scholastic.com

Reviews

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

* Chelsea's older brother Monty comes back and immediately is up to no good. He burns down the gazebo on the golf course, threatens Chelsea, and kidnaps Dawn (because she just won't listen when people tell her he's bad news.
* Chelsea wants a new dress from New York for the opening of the Chrystal Mall, but her mother is so upset by Monty that she refuses to get out of bed. Chelsea ends up running off to New York on her own because she just can't admit how bad Monty is.
* Karen's mother buys some posh material cheap and makes Karen a really, really pretty dress.
* Dawn doesn't believe that Monty is bad, she thinks he's charming, which is how she manages to end up in her car with him driving, and ultimately him attacking her. (She says she loves Pete, but how much can she really love him when she's charmed by snake Monty? She is such a muppet if she can't trust what her friends tell her!) She even goes so far as to say that Mrs Chrystal wouldn't allow her son to be bad, and that no-one related to Chelsea could possibly be bad 🙄 (How wrong was she? 😂😂)