Hot Dog Girl is a YA contemporary by Jennifer Dugan. The story follows Elouise through the summer before her senior year of high school. It’s going to be the best summer ever except that Elouise is once again cast as the hot dog at her beloved small town amusement park, which happens to be closing. Elouise is bisexual and has a major crush on Nick, a diving pirate, who happens to be dating the park’s princess. Elouise decides to fake-date her lesbian best friend, Seeley, to break up the pirate and his princess and win Nick’s heart, all while trying to save Magic Castle Playland.
The initial plot of this book won my heart. I love Disney World and any type of amusement park setting usually wins me over. Then there’s Elouise who starts out as very endearing and funny as you see the woes of playing the hot dog. Even the initial romance parts of this were funny and I was totally on board. But the middle of the book started to fall apart a bit. There’s a lot going on with the park potentially closing, the fake-dating, and multiple side stories. It all got bogged down a bit and I wasn’t super invested. But the last ~75 pages were just so adorable. I love how it all played out and it was done beautifully. I actually found myself with tears in my eyes and chuckling at the same time while finishing this one up. The ending was perfect and nearly made up for a pretty average middle.
Overall, I give this book 4 stars. Great beginning, very middling middle, and an adorable end. It’s very predictable (probably even from the synopsis on the book or above) but it’s a summer YA contemporary romance, that’s pretty much what you should suspect and Dugan added a main character dressed as a hot dog so I’m a happy camper.
Susan Lyn Knits and Reads 