Hoping that if she wins a local beauty pageant her father will come home, Raymie practices twirling a baton and performing good deeds as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with a drama queen and a saboteur.

"After waking up with a strange taste in her mouth and mysterious bruises, former child beauty queen Jessica Clink unwittingly begins an investigation into a nefarious deep state underworld. Equipped with the eccentric education of her father, Dr. Clink (a professor of Boredom Studies and the founder of an elite study group on idleness, affect, and crime known as "The Devil's Workshop"), Jessica uncovers a disquieting connection between her former...

"Death at a beauty pageant turns Tita Rosie's Kitchen upside down in the latest entry of this witty and humorous cozy mystery series by Mia P. Manansala, author of Arsenic and Adobo. Things are heating up for Lila Macapagal. Not in her love life, which she insists on keeping nonexistent despite the attention of two very eligible bachelors. Or her professional life, since she can't bring herself to open her new café after the unpleasantness that occurred...

In a town that values red hair above all else, someone threatens to expose pageant contestant Felicity's secret about her coppery locks.

"Sometimes being pushed out of your comfort zone leads you to the ultimate prize. Charlotte and Ginny Gorman might look alike but they're completely different in every other way. Bookish Charlotte loves her job as an elementary school librarian, while her twin sister is an Instagram-famous beauty pageant contestant. Ginny has been chasing a crown since she was old enough to enunciate the words world peace, and she's not giving up until she's crowned...

Two young women two generations apart discover the joy and heartbreak of following their dreams. Aspiring Hollywood actress Violet makes a shocking choice in 1940, and seventy years later, Mari sets out to discover what happened on that long ago summer. Santa Cruz, Summer 1940: When auburn-haired Violet Harcourt is crowned Miss California on the boardwalk of her hometown, she knows she is one step closer to her cherished dream: a Hollywood screen...

Twin daughters of interracial parents, eleven-year-olds Keira and Minna have very different skin tones and personalities, but it is not until their African American grandmother enters them in the Miss Black Pearl Pre-Teen competition in North Carolina that red-haired and pale-skinned Minna realizes what life in their small town in the Pacific Northwest has been like for her more outgoing, darker-skinned sister.

The last thing sixteen-year-old Maisie Martin thought she'd be doing over vacation is entering a beauty pageant. Not when she's spent most of her life hiding her body from everyone. Not when her Dad is AWOL and her gorgeous older sister has returned to rock Maisie's already shaky confidence. And especially not when her best friend starts flirting with the boy she's always loved. But Maisie's got something to prove. As she writes down all the ways...

When it comes to sassy private detectives, no one's bigger than Savannah Reid. The feisty, full-figured, steel magnolia of G. A. McKevett's acclaimed mysteries knows how to turn every investigation into a delicious romp, even when she's dealing with a bunch of waif-like beauty queen hopefuls who will kill to be crowned. . . Sour Grapes Things finally seem to be calm and peaceful in Savannah's life, but before she can celebrate by biting into a mouthful...

It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first black Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but the odds are against her until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.