It's a Mall World After All - Janette Rallison

Charlotte has gotten herself a job at the mall as a perfume seller. She doesn't particularly love her job, but she does appreciate the unique vantage point it gives her into her fellow teen's lives and psyche whom she can watch from the perfume counter. As she points and spritzes, she can tell who's depressed, who's looking for a new boyfriend, and who's susceptible to overpriced perfume.

"It's not like I'm even good at this job. To tell you the truth, I'm not that
impressed with designer fragrances. I mean, what exactly do they put in the
bottle that makes it cost so much? Ground diamonds? Nearly extinct flora? Every
time some woman stops, sniffs her wrist, and murmers, 'Well, that's a delightful
scent,' I nearly say, 'Yeah, but so is spring-fresh Tide, and they don't charge
a hundred dollars for it.'"

Charlotte is sarcastic. She's also a national honor student, very pretty, and has a policy of never dating any boy who goes to her school. Ever. She also has a major grudge against her best friend's boyfriend that stems from middle school. It's this grudge that immediately sets her senses tingling when she sees Bryant (the boyfriend) and Colton (his best friend) meeting up with two very pretty girls at the mall. She sees touching, she sees smiling, she sees what she knows is flirting. She immediately sets upon a course to proove once and for all that Bryant is no good. A course that causes more than a little trouble for Charlotte along the way.

This book is very cute. Charlotte's amusing narration of what's going on, her bumbling attempts to catch Bryant cheating, her liquid drenched attempts to get a date with Colton (breaking her own strict policy), her mortification on several occasions including the one where she unknowingly eats the centerpiece at a posh party is very, very funny. I read this in one day, in fact I read this while steadying a wobbily ladder, outside in the direct sunlight, while my husband was at the top painting our house. Not ideal circumstances to read. But I couldn't put it down, so that speaks to the book's perfect beach reading potential if anything does.