one of those hideous books where the mother dies -- Sonya Sones

If it had been by anyone but Sonya Sones, I probably would have loved it.

Unfortunately, I think that it might be impossible to top What My Mother Doesn't Know. It's so annoying. I wish that this new book (her third), one of those hideous books where the mother dies, had come out first. Then I would have been head over heels in love with it, and I would have made everyone read it, and THEN she could have topped it. But please, please, please, don't get me wrong. This is a good book, and well worth reading. Anyway, it's rough when the second book that you write is one of the BEST! BOOKS! EVER!! How can you follow that up?

It's another verse novel, but this one also includes emails between Ruby and her best friend back in Boston, Ruby and her boyfriend back in Boston, and from Ruby to her mom. Ruby's mom has just died, so she's getting shipped off from Boston to go and live in Hollywood with her movie star father (she's only ever seen him in the movies), and who ditched her and her mother before Ruby was born. Yeah--that's going to be an easy adjustment.

The parts about the Hollywood high school are priceless, Aunt Max is awesome, and like What My Mother Doesn't Know, it's predictable, but not in a bad way. Oh, and she's a big reader, so there are a couple of poems that are basically reading lists of awesome YA books. Rad.