IF I WAS YOUR GIRL

Sassy teen mom Toi lives with her son, her mom, her little brother and her cousin in New Jersey. She works part-time at IHOP, and spends most of her free time hanging out with her friends, avoiding her son’s no-good father and mooning over slick, sensible college boy Harlem Sims, who’s home from his school in Georgia. As the titles of the book’s sections suggest (Drama Part I, Part II, etc.), Simone’s latest is all about histrionics and definitely won’t disappoint: Shouting matches, door slamming, trash talk, bitch slaps and baby-daddy drama all reign supreme in this quick yet half-plotted story of struggle and tough love. Readers of traditional urban fiction or even the edgier young-adult fiction of late—such as Coe Booth’s Tyrell (2006)—may be disappointed with the novel’s lack of grit. Still, urban teen readers may recognize their friends and themselves in the language, music and feel of this fluffy-but-fun read where the issues are hard but the treatment is light. All style, but not much substance. (Fiction. YA)