Kiss & Blog: A Novel
Grade 7–9—While not as nasty as Cecily von Ziegesar's "Gossip Girl" series (Little, Brown), this is no sisterhood story either. Winter and Sloane have been best friends in Laguna Beach since third grade and they've conspired all summer to get into the A-list group as sophomores. Sloane is accepted and summarily dumps her former friend. Winter gets even with a blog, referring to Sloane as "Pink Princess." Readers know that Winter isn't really as mean-spirited as her blog; she's mostly devastated by the betrayal. Luckily, this novel takes a mostly funny approach to revenge and has a lot more going for it than shallow teens. Winter's mom is fixated on '60s culture, even though it was way before her time, and she runs a café that offers smoothies based on songs of that era. She has recently hired a 16-year-old, Rey, who befriends Winter. During an impulsive trip to New York to see her father (Why, oh why do so many chick-lit main characters have former rock stars as dads?), she has a fling with his art-gallery intern. Winter shows real growth throughout the novel and finds her way with new friends, a boyfriend, and even her mother. A good choice for reluctant readers, the story also has enough substance to appeal to any reader, whether or not they'd do in those who done them wrong.—Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.