Good Girls
Grade 9 Up–Audrey wants to spend her senior year staying at fourth in her class and hanging with her friends, so she breaks it off with the flirty and mysterious Luke DeSalvio by giving him a goodbye gift he won't forget. But at school next week, Audrey gets snickers, jeers, and dirty jokes, and Luke won't even look at her. As it turns out, someone took a photo of her intimate moment with him, and now she must spend all her energy repairing her reputation. She reacts to her newfound infamy by pouring herself into her schoolwork and analyzing her relationship with Luke via flashback chapters. Her friend Ash is horrified when Audrey tells her she's not a virgin, and Audrey resigns herself to hanging out with the school sluts. Slowly, she manages to pull herself up to second in her class, and a run-in with Luke reveals that his feelings about her were not what she assumed. Audrey reclaims her self-esteem with her new girlfriends as they all dress up as born-again virgins for the prom, and a late-night confession reveals the true culprit behind the photograph. The story ends predictably with Audrey and Luke reunited. Teens will enjoy Ruby's frank message that having sex does not necessarily make one a slut. However, the tone occasionally gets preachy, as Audrey receives advice from her parents, preacher, and gynecologist. Still, the book will appeal to teens who've matured beyond Cecily von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl series (Little, Brown).–Jane Cronkhite, Cuyahoga County Public Library, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.