The voices of three friends at a Manhattan magnet school give different viewpoints about a May week in this enjoyable, if predictable, novel. Rhiannon, organized and controlling, tries to win back the boyfriend who abruptly ended their romance. Her best friend James, who unconvincingly denies his unrequited love of Rhiannon, finally admits it to himself and risks letting her know. On the surface, Nicole’s biggest problem is that she broke up with her boyfriend, but readers will quickly realize she has been the victim of incest. In a related subplot, a minor character, Sheila, is being physically abused by her boyfriend. Each narrator gives a different take on some of the same scenes, not all of which merit retellings, so the plot drags occasionally. Colasanti deals plausibly with everyday problems of romance and school, and her slang-heavy narratives create sympathetic characters. But the incest and abuse elements feel contrived, with seemingly quick fixes near the end that don’t do justice to the difficulties faced in real life. (Fiction. YA)
