Dork Diaries 4: Skating Sensation by Rachel R. Russell

Nikki Maxwell isn’t at all surprised to find out that her crush Brandon volunteers at a local animal shelter. He’s such a sweet guy—of course he wants to help those adorable puppies! Then Brandon tells her that the shelter is in danger of closing, and Nikki knows she can’t let that happen. Especially when she discovers a shocking secret about Brandon that makes keeping that shelter open more important than ever. So Nikki and her friends Chloe and Zoey enter an ice skating competition to help raise money for the shelter, but (big surprise) Mackenzie has to stick her nose in and cause trouble so that she can be the one to swoop in and save the day. No way will Nikki let that happen: She’ll just have to come up with some extra creative ideas this time!
*Description from Goodreads"

Just let me clear my throat and I’ll be right with you guys.

*coughs and reaches for the mega-phone*

BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE this series? Yeah? Well you won’t mind if I mention it again, you know, just in passing.

I couldn’t wait for this book to come out and when it dropped through my letter box I gobbled it up as soon as I got home from work that night – don’t you just hate it when you are home just long enough to catch the post man and then you can’t even stay home long enough to enjoy what they have brought?

Nikki is getting so much better at not keeping everything that she thinks to herself and telling Mackenzie (her arch nemesis) what she thinks – and it is great fun to see what happens on the few occasions when her thoughts get said aloud.

I was disappointed that there were no images of Nikki doing the Snoopy Dance – that always makes me smile.

Part of why Nikki ends up tangled in trying to do some figure skating it because of a book that one of her friends is reading titles The Ice Princess – and it has one of the best summaries ever.

“It’s about a girl and a guy who have been best friends forever. She’s training to be a world-class figure skater while he’s working towards a spot on the Olympic hockey team.Just as they’re about to fall in love, they discover that their ice arena is the secret hideout of the Deadly Ice Vambies, half-vampire and half-zombie beings whose supernatural ice-skating abilities grow more and more powerful every time they eat a double bacon cheeseburger”

In all seriousness someone needs to write a book based on that summary – I would read it.

Nikki and her friends are all lovely. They all make the best out of what is handed to them when Mackenzie tries to sabotage them and although they may be upset to begin with they always have the time of their lives.

I loved seeing Nikki spending more time with her little sister, even though she is a pain it is clear that Nikki loves her.

I can’t recommend these books enough.

You can find my posts on the previous books here ~~

Book 1 - Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life (link to goodreads)

Book 2 - Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl

Book 3 - Tales from a Not-So-Talented PopStar (link to goodreads)

Book 31/2 – How to Dork Your Diary (link to post on blog)

PS – Do American schools really have ice-skating as part of the curriculum? All we got was swimming, and for a chubby little 13 year old me I was in hell for the whole lesson.