How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer

How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True
by Sarah Strohmeyer
Read: April 15-16, 2013
Published: April 23rd 2013 by Balzer & Bray/Harperteen
Source: Around The World Arc Tours
Category: Contemporary, YA 

Zoe and her cousin Jess have landed summer internships at Fairyland Kingdom theme park, where a bunch of attractive high school students dress up in fairytale character costumes for the hordes of visitors all summer long. Zoe's not sure why she was accepted into the program, because acting isn't really her thing. But she's excited to spend time with her cousin, check out the hot guys and work in a place that she loved growing up, and that reminds her of her mom. There's also a chance to win the coveted $25,000 Dream and Do grant. 

Of course the internship doesn't end up being nearly as fun as Zoe imagined, especially because she is assigned to be the Lady-in-waiting aka personal assistant/slave to the park boss "The Queen." Soon backstabbing interns, an evil lap dog, a runaway Cinderella and cutthroat competition make Zoe's job more like a nightmare than a fairy tale. Zoe has to decide what's more important: keeping her job, helping her cousin or saving the prince of her dreams? (adapted from Goodreads)

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How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True is like an ABC Family Cinderella movie in book form. You know, A Cinderella Story, Another Cinderella Story, A Singing Cinderella Story, A Dancing Cinderella story (I will shamelessly admit that I have seen all of those movies). This book is a Fairytale Theme Park Cinderella Story, complete with real princes and princesses (yes even a Cinderella!). How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True is similar to those over the top, addicting ridiculous movies, only the story is harder to digest in book form than movie. Probably because I didn't have all those colorful moving pictures to distract me from the fact that this book is not even remotely plausible. 

In fact, the more I thought about this book the more I realized that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Besides the fact that the theme park violates tons of child safety and labor laws, the plot is utterly silly and filled with massive holes. It stretched my suspension-of-disbelief-for-a-contemporary-book abilities to the max. Even so, the story did amuse me, it wasn't stressful and I laughed in several places. I was also fairly surprised by the end, even if that end made the story all the more over the top.

The romance in How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True was cute and triangle free. I did like Zoe's love interest, and the sweet relationship he developed with Zoe. I also did not mind being in Zoe's head. She really tried to do the right things, and I appreciated the efforts she made to grow up and face some experiences from her past. But it was hard to take those parts of the story seriously amidst the rest of the zany fairyland plot. Several of the supporting characters were fun and didn't always do what was expected, which was also a plus. I enjoyed Zoe's supportive cousin Jess, and a few others who became more intriguing as the story went along.  

As a retelling of the Cinderella story, How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True has the appropriate elements - an evil stepmother (boss), concealed identities, sabotage, glass slippers, costumes, dances and a prince charming, of course. I liked that the fairytale elements were remixed and the story wasn't always predictable. However, the book was also more confusing at times than it needed to be, and the silliness and my extensive efforts to suspend my disbelief overrode some of the fun of reading it. If How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True was turned into a movie, I would definitely watch it. In book form, it is not quite as charming (pun intended).

Love Triangle Factor: Mild

Cliffhanger Scale: Standalone

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