After her childhood best (and only) friend Cameron suddenly disappears, Jennifer is lost.  The only way she can cope is to completely transform herself from “loser” into “cool.”  When Cameron reappears years later, Jennifer is shocked.  Suddenly the popular image she has created for herself begins to crumble as she begins to confront secrets from the past.  An excellent young adult novel.

Deanna’s a sophomore, who is struggling to overcome her reputation as a slut. She gained this reputation at age 13, when her father caught her in the backseat with 17 year old Tommy. Not only is her entire high school still talking about it, but Deanna’s father refuses to look her in the eye, and her mother tries to pretend like it never happened. Deanna tries to find refuge in her summer job, her best friends Jason and Lee, and her plans to move away from home as soon as possible. But ultimately, she must learn to forgive her father, and herself, for past mistakes.

This book was hard to read, and hard to put down. Zarr takes a hard look at the very real effects of teenage sex. I would recommend this book for both parents and teenagers to read. It’s definitely not written from a Christian perspective, and you may not agree with all of the choices that the characters make. But parents in particular will come away from the book with a renewed sense of their own importance, both for good and for bad, in the lives of their teenage children.