CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN

A legend in her own mind, former New Yorker Mary Elizabeth (“My true name is Lola”) Cep sweeps into her new suburban New Jersey high school and runs smack into a stone wall named Carla Santini: class queen, beautiful, clever, and vicious. In a series of sharp skirmishes, both teenagers display generous quantities of grit and ego, and though Lola beats out Carla for the lead in the school play, she also, thanks to a positive penchant for embellishing the truth, maneuvers herself into a reckless nighttime junket into Manhattan with her mousy friend, Ella. Hours later, the two find their wildest dreams coming true as they accompany a popular, very drunk rock star to a hot post-concert party. Sheldon (Boy Of My Dreams, 1997) gives her fast-talking protagonist a winning supporting cast (led by Ella, who turns out to be unexpectedly levelheaded and loyal in the crunch), a worthy rival and triumphs that are not easily won; readers will cheer the high spots, groan at the low, and applaud Lola in general for her grandly disarming style. (Fiction. 10-13)