This was the funniest book in the Anastasia series since the first one, so I'm going with 4.5 stars. It's a funny, lighthearted book. But there is a major caveat... this was originally published in 1991, in the days before the internet and world wide web were in every household. In the days before social media, and online dating, etc. From today's perspective, I expect many people will find a disturbing element to the plot, even though all is resolved happily and humorously in the end.

There are two plot lines. There is a wedding, in which Anastasia and her friends will all be junior bridesmaids. But they have all sworn off chasing boys, because all 7th grade boys are jerks. Anastasia decides that since 7th grade boys are jerks, she will pursue an older man, and she answers a personals ad in the paper from a 28 year old man. (This is the disturbing part, obviously.) Her intent isn't to actually date a man 14 years older than her, but to try to woo him, so that when she herself is finished with college, she'll have him hooked. Each chapter ends with either a letter Anastasia writes to SWM-28, or a letter he writes to her, believing her to be much older. In each of Anastasia's letters, she stretches the truth as far as she can without outright lying. (For example, when Septimuis, yes, that's his name, asks her to send a photo, she knows he will not be attracted by a photo of a 14 year old girl. But she notes, he didn't specify a photo ~of her~... so she sends him a picture of her mother when she was about 28.)
The first half of the book is mainly set-up for the second half, which works like a situation comedy. I laughed out loud many times in the second half. In fact, the biggest laugh of all came when Anastasia unexpectedly meets her "pen pal," Septimus. ( )

Cute but not stellar. ( )

Anastasia begins to write back to a personal ad in a magazine. After attending to her best friend's wedding, she realizes the man she has been writing to her, is her friend's uncle. Aanastsia is your typical 13 year old. She is awkward, unsure, and silly. I feel as if this book only targets majority of girls at this stage. I will probably not use it for a class assignment, but i might recommended it for a girl as this age. I also feel as if this book is outdated. Many people might not be able to reconnect to certain words or situations in the book. I did like how Anastasia had a pen pal. This could open to the possibility of some of students of having a pen pal. I used to love this book as an early teen, and it is funny as things pass. ( )

I agree with the review below me. I enjoyed thid book at first but it just got more and more silly.
For instance:
Having your sister's friends as junior bridesmaids when she didn't even mention her own friends.
Ringing the doctors asking the doctor to piece her ears!
Taking her earings out after a week and a half
Saying it was painless getting them pierced
The maturity of the 3 year olds vocabulary
The 3 year old using a screwdriver to remove a bell
The stupid joke about the 'wok', half of which the 3 year old made up
The fact that it was obvious she was was young
The sheer coincedience at the end

I found the language was quite funny though. Like when Anastasia said how her mother can just 'whip off' art and her mother replied 'what do you mean whip off? I spent 4 years in art school!' ( )

I have now read eight Anastasia books in a row. Maybe I'm getting tired of them. Maybe this is because, at 29, I'm not really the intended audience. Maybe the quality of the writing is actually decreasing. Possibly the author is just running out of funny things to have Anastasia do, so the situations are getting more ridiculous. I don't know.
In this volume, Anastasia decides to answer a personal ad in The New York Review of Books. Obviously, the person who placed the ad is much older than Anastasia, but he writes back to her anyway. I find it hard to believe that this individual would not realize from the quality of her writing that she is a teenager, but if that were the case, there wouldn't be much to have a book about, either. Also, Anastasia gets to be a junior bridesmaid in her friend's sister's wedding. I also find it hard to believe that sister did not have any other friends, so she has to stoop to having her 7th grade sister's friends be her bridesmaids. I find Anastasia's parents and younger brother far more compelling characters than Anastasia herself. ( )