The Summer I Became A Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

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On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.

This story was insanely cute - even I'm crushing on Logan after reading this! Of course, he may be too good to be true - he's geeky, cute, kind, hosts a radio station, plays soccer, and is close with his family. Maybe a bit of a male Mary-Sue? Oh, well. He's still daydream material. 

What really irked me was Maddie. Don't get me wrong, she seemed pretty cool, and her inner dork was fun to read about, but I just couldn't believe how stupid she could be - she had to wear a disguise just to go to the comic shop. All she worried about was what other people thought of her. Sadly, I know that a lot of people really do care about how they're seen in the eyes of others (I myself am also guilty), but she just really seemed to take it to the extreme. Maybe things are different depending on where you live, but when I was in high school (class of '07!), being a nerd was not a bad thing - everyone was nerdy in their own way, even the cheerleaders. 

At any rate, Maddie eventually gets over her phobias and realizes that it's just not worth it to live her life in a way that she feels meets everyone's expectations. Finally! And, *spoiler alert* it also turns out that no one even cares that she's a closet comic-book geek. Who knew? I guess all that work she did to hide her interests from her peers was all for nothing...

But despite that one annoyance that I had with Maddie, I still really enjoyed reading this book. She and Logan made a really cute couple, and there were some funny moments in the story as well (though they came mostly from Logan's friend, Dan). I also found myself wishing that I had some friends to go LARPing with, as it kinda sounds like fun....any-who, if you're proud nerd and a fan of cute, quirky romances, then I recommend that you at least give this a try - it's a perfect summer beach read!