Victoria Lee lives alone in a huge mansion while her
successful parents run their businesses in Hong Kong. The
teenager has made it through one semester of her junior
year at Manderley Prep, a prestigious school for Silicon
Valley spoiled brats, but isn't sure how the second
semester will go. She misses her friends from home, and
although she's started to make new friends -- Cindy and
Maggie -- she's lonely.
Victoria spends most of her time day-dreaming about jock
Steve Heller or sketching fashion designs. But although
Steve took her to the Welcome Dance last semester, he's
ignored her since then.
To top off her bad school beginnings, Victoria is assigned
a weird and difficult lab partner, Gabe. He's already
reamed her out for conspicuous consumption and harming the
environment with her BMW. (He rides a bicycle.)
But as the two are forced to work together, and a party
reveals Steve's true character, Victoria starts to see that
Gabe is a pretty cool guy. She and he could get to be good
friends. Friends, that's it.
This is the second book in the BFF series and it stands out
as tremendously better than the first one. (I didn't like
the clichéd plotline in that book at all.) But Victoria is
likable and more real, as is Gabe. I enjoyed the plot more
in this one and like that Victoria didn't just suddenly
change her personality to adapt to Gabe's "green" thinking.
They learned to respect each other, and that's not a bad
lesson in a teen book.
At an exclusive school like Manderly Prep, you really
need your BFFs to get you through.
Victoria
Lee, who spent her childhood in Hong Kong, has been
transplanted to her parents' McMansion-unsupervised.
Anyone else would think they were dreaming, but for
Victoria, it's closer to a nightmare. Life alone in a big
house can make you feel really empty.
Victoria
feels like she's stepped out of the book she has to read
for Brit Lit, A Tale of Two Cities. And it's not
just Hong Kong vs. San Francisco. It's her parents' Ivy
League dreams vs. her own dream of fashion school. And the
snotty kids at Manderley Prep vs. her real friends, Cindy
and Maggie. Then there's her crush Steve, who doesn't even
notice her anymore.
She doesn't even feel at
home at home-since the housekeeper's son, Gabe,
acts like Victoria's very breath is destroying his
precious environment. Maybe he's got a point. Maybe
Victoria is miles from where she really belongs.
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