Leona's book begins with her writing a letter home. A letter in which she's a total uncaring bitch. She's clearly thrilled that Scarlet moved out of their room. "It looks soooooo much better without all that black." She also wishes for a new roommate whose color goes better with gold. Uh, on what planet do black and gold not go together? They go very well together. Dumbass.
Lady Stella sends out a Star Zap summons, so Leona, clad in her PJs, heads for the office. Being Leona, her thoughts on what the meeting could be about turn quickly to selfish invented accomplishments of her own. UGH. The summons, however, is specifically for the band members: Leona, Sage, Vega, Libby and Scarlet, but Scarlet isn't there. The other girls are concerned about her, but not bitchface Leona. Lady Stella is upset that the girls named their band the Star Darlings, but it's quickly revealed that the band name was given by the Ranker, who chose the band members after auditions.
The next day, Tessa and Adora are fighting. Then Cassie calls Leona, which strikes me as odd. Cassie's a bit shy and timid, so how is she already on calling terms with Leona, who is at best described as brash? Cassie expresses worry about Scarlet. Leona blows it off again. Cassie and Leona join Piper and Gemma at lunch. Once again, the discussion turns to Scarlet and it's clear Leona is happy she's gone. She says, "It's like she was never there," and Piper, being an actual decent person, replies, "Ah, but she was. Don't forget that." Conversation continues and Leona puts down Scarlet AGAIN. Then Gemma mentions she's still fighting with Libby and roommates Astra and Clover join the group, also in the middle of a fight. The girls discuss what they were fighting about, but the effects of the argument seem to be wearing off. (My theory is that the power of the flowers wears off when you're away from them for awhile. Which makes Leona not spelled by the flowers at all. She's just a bitch when it comes to Scarlet.) Piper brings up her worries about the tensions between the group. Piper and Vega are having problems, too. But then Leona's food comes and naturally, she can't be bothered to have a serious discussion, so she uses food as an excuse not to. The other girls arrive and discussion turns back to Scarlet and Leona insults her AGAIN. I find it horrible that Leona thinks Scarlet can't be trusted when SHE is the one who took Scarlet's deceased grandfather's hat several times despite being told not to. That's what untrustworthy behavior actually is, you selfish bitch. Oh, but then Libby mentions Scarlet's drums and NOW Leona suddenly cares about her...or rather cares about who's going to play drums in her precious band.
I had to put the book down at this point, because I do not think I have EVER had to read a book from the point of view of such a terrible, self-centered, just plain nasty character. I despise Leona in terms of anything having to do with Scarlet.
The girls meet for band practice and Scarlet doesn't show, but Vivica does and drops the bombshell that she asked the Ranker to create a second band from the rankings. Naturally, she's lead singer and the band is called Vivica and the Visionaries. This is interesting because Vivica got to choose her band's name, but Leona couldn't. The girls try to practice, but without Scarlet's beat, they suck. They call Clover, who has more musical talent than all of them put together, but refuses to be onstage. She agrees to sit in for practices, but won't perform ever.
Cassie sends Sage a text and we see the Leona Attitude turn on Sage when she doesn't immediately tell the others what's going on. When she finally does, it's big. Cassie thinks she's seen Scarlet's replacement. The girls rush to Lady Stella's office and eventually she comes out, having known they were there the entire time and called the others to join them. She introduces Ophelia, the "true" twelfth SD, a teeny tiny girl with yellow pigtails and a lot of freckles. Then Libby has her Wish Blossom ceremony.
Ophelia becomes Leona's roommate and finally we see an actually likeable side of Leona. She has two little sisters so I'm wondering if she somehow is a good person around younger, more delicate girls because of them. Cassie apparently reminds her of Duchess, one of said little sisters, and now Ophelia is like that, too. The two of them bond a bit, until Leona smells the stupid flowers and then she's a bit bitchy. The SDs continue to have squabbles and Leona accuses Ophelia of moving their flowers, but she says she didn't. The two make up quickly. During the special SD class at the end of school, Ophelia begins to worry that she's too far behind the others to really be a SD.
A new Wish Orb is ready and Leona is chosen to go. She makes an amusing landing in the middle of a lake, then acclimates herself to boarding school, after bitching about the ugly uniforms. (Vega says something about them, too, later. What do these girls have against plaid?) She finds her wisher pretty quickly and convinces her to try out for the talent show. They make it back into the auditorium just in time, with her wisher performing in her pajamas. She makes the cut, but has to endure taunting from the class bitches and an unsupportive older sister. Vega arrives to tell Leona her wish is a bit off-track, but Leona can't figure out how until she's onstage. She had been going to perform a duet with her wisher, but makes her do a solo instead. Her wisher doesn't think she can do it, but a little coaching from Leona and she's ready. Leona collects her wish energy, then the mean girls pick on her again, only to be shot down by some support from the wisher's older sister, which earns Leona even more wish energy. What she'd been a bit off-track about was her wisher's wanting her older sis's support. Vega wants to leave right after the show, but Leona's wisher wants to do a duet with her, which Leona agrees to.
Then everything goes wrong. On the trip back to Starland, Leona's star malfunctions and Vega has to rescue her, but the worst thing is that Leona's wish pendant is destroyed. However, no one is sure how it happened. It was fine when they arrived on Starland, but when they go to the Wish Blossom ceremony, it's all burnt up. Wish Pendants are designed to hold an unlimited amount of energy, so she didn't overload it.
Leona is crushed about her failure, which she sees as her own fault and not some odd occurrence. She feels worse when she returns to her room and Scarlet is there. Scarlet wants to talk to her about something that is clearly important, but Leona is so utterly rude to her that I can hardly believe this is a children's book. Scarlet leaves, telling her she's making a big mistake.
So that's the book and I am so glad I've read it and it's over. Leona is actually a decent character when she's with Ophelia and on Earth. When she's capable of thinking of others, she's fine. But those moments are completely overshadowed by her poor attitude toward Scarlet and her inability to see that this thing is bigger than herself and treat the situation with the importance it deserves.
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