Blowout

Hello, Gorgeous! #1

by Taylor Morris, Anne Keenan Higgins (Illustrator)

Now that she's had her thirteenth birthday, Mickey's finally old enough to work at her mother's super glam hair salon--Hello, Gorgeous! And true to the old cliche about people confiding in their hair stylists, Mickey starts getting an earful right off the bat. Customers love talking to her because she's so empathetic, but what happens when she starts getting overly involved in their dramas?

Genres: Middle Grade

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

I write books and stuff for teens and tweens.

Author for celebrity chef and Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis' series, RECIPE FOR ADVENTURE, about how food can take you places, published by Penguin's Grosset & Dunlap. The books are, "Naples!" "Paris!" "Hong Kong!" and "New Orleans!"

HELLO, GORGEOUS! is a series about a well-intentioned blabbermouth who works at her mom's hair salon. The books are "Blowout," "Foiled," "Tangled," "Swept Up," and "'Do and Don'ts." Published by Penguin's Grosset & Dunlap.

I also wrote "BFF Breakup," "Class Favorite" and "Total Knockout: Tale of an Ex-Class President" for Simon & Schuster's Aladdin/MIX line.

I'm a full-time writer and freelance editor.

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Blowout was a cute read, and a promising start to the series. I love the setting at the salon for so much of this book, it really makes for a fun read. Blowout is a fun read that you will simply breeze through.

I was not crazy about the choices Mickey was making in this one so she could ride the train to popularity. Stealing, telling people about private conversations at the salon? This was not the Mickey I had met in book 2, Foiled. Same goes with Lisabeth, she was an absolute monster to Mickey in this one, and I was just astounded. These 2 things aside, I really loved all the characters. Eve and Jonah are 2 characters that are particularly wonderful.

Mickey made some mistakes, but I did like that she went through amends to fix the, though some of those weren't the most honest choices either.

Blowout was a cute read, but definitely not my favorite. I much preferred Foiled to this one. These are the sort of books you read when you don't want to think a ton, but want a cute book to keep you entertained!

[Susann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blowout is great start to this new series called 'Hello, Gorgeous!'. Mickey's mom owns the swankest salon in town and, once she turns 13, lucky Mickey gets to start working there. That luck starts to fade, though, as Mickey makes some serious mistakes - both at the salon and with her friends. I like how Morris shows how even unintentional acts can have major consequences, and I really like how Mickey eventually owns up to her deeds and figures out a way to fix things.

The hair and fashion styling details of the story are a guaranteed hook for girly tween readers. But less-than-glam girls will also relate to Mickey and her friends (including her boy bff). Growing up, my awkward stage lasted approximately 11 years, but that doesn't mean I can't still describe the wardrobes of Maddy Kemper, Carrie Wasserman, Meg Powers, and Dana Morrison.

[Voraknuth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read this at the age of 14-15 and i LOVE it. It’s a very simple build up of an ordinary girl’s life at a salon and such a heartwarming love story. Super cute!!

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blowout is the first book in the Hello, Gorgeous series, about a girl named Mickey whose mother owns a high-end beauty salon. At the start of this book Mickey celebrates her birthday and gets hired as a sweeper in the salon as part of her present. She really wants to do a good job and impress her stickler mother, but a few things get in the way. For one, a couple of popular girls visit the salon for manicures, and Mickey steals them some nail polish in order to impress them. When she overhears juicy gossip in the salon, Mickey can't help but repeat it at school, which causes problems for a number of people, including a stylist at the salon itself. On top of that, her best friend, Jonah, has stopped speaking to her, and her hair, which has always bothered her, has become more unruly than ever. Will Mickey get it together and save her friendship and her job, or will she be fired and forced to be uncool and frizzy forever?

There were definitely a lot of pluses to this book. The beauty salon setting has a lot of possibilities, and I like the way the author incorporates different stylists with different personalities into the plot. Mickey's social awkwardness or inability to have natural conversation with her peers is a quality many girls can relate to, and one that hasn't really been represented in tween fiction in quite this way before either. It makes Mickey much more sympathetic, and her predicaments with the girls at school more understandable. I also really appreciate the fact that Mickey's best friend is a boy, but she's neither one of the boys, nor secretly in love with her best friend. Mickey's and Jonah's friendship is much more realistic, and though I questioned whether Jonah's expression of his feelings rang true or not, I thought their friendship was very touching.

My problems with this book mainly had to do with the way the plot threads fit together. While I think the overall message was about authenticity, honesty, and trustworthiness, I was concerned that the book suggests that the way to achieve those things is to get a good haircut. I also didn't think Devon, the stylist most effected by Mickey's indiscretions, was that believable, in the sense that she made deals with a kid that could make or break her job, when she easily could have gotten Mickey into trouble and probably still kept her job.

I'd recommend this book to girls who are into makeup, hairstyles, and fashion. It makes a great read-alike for the Cinderella Cleaners series (part of which I reviewed here and here) and is likely to appeal to girls who like the Aladdin Mix and Candy Apple paperbacks as well.

[BookChic Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been TOO LONG since I had a Taylor Morris book (her previous book came out in 2008) and I'm so glad that I can binge on three of them in a month. Blowout and its sequel Foiled are already out in stores, and BFF Breakup will be out May 10. Today though, I'm talking about Blowout, the first in a four-book series set around a girl working in her mother's salon. I don't think I've ever read a book set in a salon and now I kinda want to read more, lol. Morris sucked me in as usual with her fun prose and pitch-perfect voice and characterization.

Mickey is a great main character to read about and I enjoyed reading the start of her saga at the salon. I flew through this book really quickly and I'm eager to read the sequels. Morris has a great eye for writing about pre-teen problems, though many of them are timeless- how to make friends properly (and keep the ones you already have), gossiping and eavesdropping is not good, and trying to make your parents proud. These things pop up no matter how old you are, which makes this a fun read for people of all ages.

I also love that Mickey's best friend is a boy and that she plays video games and is really good at them. I loved all the characters in this book and it's going to be fun revisiting them in the sequels.

Overall, a fun series debut that I highly recommend (along with Morris' other books).

[Zia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this as a "girly" book to read, because we get many requests for such, and I am not good at "girly" books!

It is about a young teenage girl, who's mom owns a really swanky hair salon. She has wanted to work there her whole life, and as a present on her 13th b-day, gets a free pamper day, and a chance to be the hair sweeper.

Her best friend forever is a boy, and she is longing for some popular girl friends. Through the salon, she gets her chance. But things go awry when she overhears conversations, and shares what she has heard. Some of it turns out in her favor, but much of it only causes rumor mill problems, and actually alienates her from the people she is trying so hard to impress!

So, I sort of grudgingly read this, but much to my surprise, it was pretty good! Much more about true friendship, dealing with peer pressure, how important it is to not repeat something you've heard without checking the source, etc.

It turned out to be fun, with much more substance than I thought.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

cool.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book!

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

omh

[Alissa Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Hello, Gorgeous,” by Taylor Morris, is a book about a girl named Mikey, who started working at her mom’s salon. She had trouble at first, and causes many problems in and out of the salon. She has to find different ways to solve all the problems she created, stealing, lying, breaking friends apart, etc. I give this book a 4 because it has a good plot and fun characters, but some parts of the book were confusing. There were parts of the book that had two or more conversations in it and it got a bit tricky. Parts/sections of the book well amazing lesson teachers, as well, like when Mikey and her friends make up again, she ensures one of the stylist's job, etc. Also, my independent reading book has some very relatable situations in it, that many people many feel/experience daily. For example, when MIkey found something out, she had to tell her friends right away, which is what I do sometimes with my friends.