Dream Girl by Lauren Mechling

Claire Voyante has been having strange visions ever since she can remember. But the similarity between her name and her talents is purely coincidental. The name is French, and unlike the psychics on TV, she can't solve crimes or talk to the dead. Whenever Claire follows her hunches, she comes up empty - or ends up in pretty awkward situations. 

But all that changes on Claire's fifteenth birthday, when her grandomther Kiki - former socialite, fashion icon, and now permanent fixture at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel - gives her something a little more extraordinary than one of her old cocktail dresses: a strange cameo, made of onyx and ivory, on a gold chain. And it's not long before Claire's world becomes a whole lot clearer. And a whole lot more dangerous. 

New friends, old grudges, strange jewelry, and some creepy black-and-white dreams - if Claire can just survive sophomore year in high school, she might be able to get through anything.

(Summary from jacket flap)

It's a miracle that I actually finished a book. Wow. How long has it been? Like three weeks? I am infinitely sorry at my incompetence at reading right now. I'm trying so so so hard, I promise. I think part of the reason that I've been deathly slow lately is that Dream Girl had some frusterating spots. I'd hit a rough patch, stop reading, and then pick it up a week later. In between those rough patches, though, it was good. I enjoyed reading about Claire and her mischief. I might even say that Dream Girl is a better version of The Queen Geek series which I detested. This book has all the fun and nerdy elements but presented in a much more believable and enjoyable way. Claire is the leading lady who is just spunky enough to be fun to read about but not overly ridiculous like the characters in Queen Geek. Another character 

I loved was Kiki. I want a grandmother who is stylish and completely awesome like her. :) I'm so glad that she was included in the story because she added a fun new angle to the book. One of the random elements I enjoyed was the cameo necklace. I love that sort of silhouette-ish thing with the pretty black and white and I can totally picture myself wearing a necklace like that. The writing in Dream Girl might not have been all that wonderful or captivating but the whole mystery of the story and the fun romance between Claire and Andy kept it all moving and left me satisfied. I would recommend Dream Girl as a nice light read along the lines of The Gallagher Girls and The Queen Geek Books (although far better than the latter). I am looking forward to the next book in the series!