"Also, Alexandra is probably skirting the edge (if she hasn't already tripped right past it) between being a believable tween who's reacting to events with sometimes less than adult maturity, and being so annoying that everyone is rooting for her to get slapped, hard."

Wait, you mean she isn't already so annoying that everyone is rooting for her to get slapped, hard?

Seriously, though, I think you have a lot of latitude on this issue. Very few people will be reading this without having read the first three; they're already committed to the character. And Alex would be less interesting if she weren't kind of a bitch anyway.

-TealTerror