Red by Alison Cherry

Red by Alison Cherry
Series: No
Publisher: Quercus
Publication Date: January 2nd 2014
Source: Publisher [Netgalley]

Felicity St. John has it all—loyal best friends, a hot guy, and artistic talent. And she’s right on track to win the Miss Scarlet pageant. Her perfect life is possible because of just one thing: her long, wavy, coppery red hair.

Having red hair is all that matters in Scarletville. Redheads hold all the power—and everybody knows it. That’s why Felicity is scared down to her roots when she receives an anonymous note:

I know your secret. 

Because Felicity is a big fake. Her hair color comes straight out of a bottle. And if anyone discovered the truth, she’d be a social outcast faster than she could say "strawberry blond." Her mother would disown her, her friends would shun her, and her boyfriend would dump her. And forget about winning that pageant crown and the prize money that comes with it—money that would allow her to fulfill her dream of going to art school.

Felicity isn’t about to let someone blackmail her life away. But just how far is she willing to go to protect her red cred?

Red was one of those books that I was intrigued about as soon as I heard about it. A whole town that's a sanctuary to redheads? Yeah, this book definitely caught my interest. Unfortunately, most of this book fell flat for me. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it wasn't completely terrible either. I just didn't connect with the story that much because I was constantly questioning it, but there were parts of it I enjoyed.

The whole idea of having a town where Redheads are in powers was extremely intriguing, but the way it was written left me confused. I was constantly wondering why people with blond, brown and black hair still lived there because they were treated awfully! There's a huge pageant built around redheads and any important positions in the town were held by redheads. I was just so confused as to why anyone else would want to live there when they were constantly subjected to horrible treatment. I also didn't understand how the press wasn't all over this town. Everyone outside Scarletville laughed and pointed at them, so I don't know why the press didn't acknowledge this town that only accepted redheads. It was completely absurd!

Felicity was an OK character. There wasn't really anything special about her and for most of the book, I didn't really care about her. Felicity is a natural strawberry blond and has been getting her hair dyed red ever since she was young so that she would fit it. This was basically all shoved upon her by her mother who is a complete controlling bitch. She forces Felicity to keep her natural hair colour a secret and forces her to take part in these pageants which she doesn't want to do. Felicity wants to follow her dream and take art at college, but her mother wants her to go to the community college and study something that will get her a real job. I did feel pretty sorry for Felicity because of the way her mother was, but Felicity never stood up to her mother. She was also constantly annoying me with her paranoia about people finding out she wasn't a real redhead. All the way through the book she was letting herself be blackmailed to prevent people finding out, but she's also debating about whether she should just tell people she's a strawberry blond. It was just driving me insane! She did redeem herself at the end though and that was basically the only time I liked her.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't care at all about any of the pageant stuff when I started getting further into the book. I just wanted to see how far Felicity would go to protect her secret before she finally cracked. She lasted a lot longer than I thought she would - which slightly disappointed me. I thought she had the guts to stand up for herself and not be so obsessed with her image. It was unbelievable how vain she was and how she didn't want to give up her red hair until a boy showed up. I never expected Felicity's mothers secret though, although after it was revealed I realised I should have guessed it. 

The ending was alright and I was kind of proud of Felicity at the end. Overall, this wasn't the best book ever. It was OK. The storyline was absurd (and slightly interesting) but I didn't connect completely with any of these characters and I certainly won't remember any of them.