THE ALPHA BET

Thanks to her diligence in studying, Grace Kelly Cook is able to enroll in college at 16 and flee her helicopter mom. Now that she has social freedom and a makeover, courtesy of her new BFF and roommate, Jentry, she plans to rush the Alphas sorority. She enjoys rush and the sisters’ company but gets pulled from rush due to an accident orchestrated by a mean girl. With her Google-fu, Grace Kelly is able to lie her way back into the Alphas. All Alpha pledges must complete the Alpha Bet, a list of tasks that ranges from pranks to sisterly bonding, before initiation. Grace Kelly enjoys both her classes and her tasks but almost loses the Alphas when she gets caught in her lie. Adjusting to college and gaining independence prove to be a challenge for Grace Kelly, whose first-person narration reveals her extreme social naïveté (“ ‘I’ve never even kissed a boy,’ I confess”). Rounding out this sunny story are a sweet romance with a fellow science geek and social justice for the mean girl. (Fiction. YA)