THE FEARLESS FOURSOME

In this YA novel, a student discovers that honesty is indeed the best policy.

It’s the beginning of summer, and Sara Hawthorne, a high school freshman, joins a club called the Fearless Foursome in hopes of becoming popular. She and her fellow club members—trouble-making, boy crazy Laurel Atwater; studious Adalynn Stevenson; and Sara’s best friend, Ella Taylor—have their first official meeting and sleepover at Ella’s house. After receiving a mysterious note, the girls sneak out of the house around midnight to meet a group of popular jocks—aka the Warriors. Unfortunately, one of the guys falls and breaks his leg. The boy gets help, but a policeman escorts the girls back to Ella’s house—and two angry parents. The next day, Ella’s mother informs Sara that she must tell her parents what happened. Unable to bring herself to confess, Sara is in agony. To make matters worse, Ella and Adalynn are hanging around with big mouth Laurel all the time. One bright spot in Sara’s life is one of the Warriors, Matt, who seems to like her a lot. And while volunteering at the zoo, she meets a new friend, Kristen, who’s too busy being herself to care about being popular. Nelan’s fast-paced novel is packed with perfectly cute characters and young teen angst—when Matt goes on a family vacation for two whole weeks, conniving Laurel follows him. For the most part, the dialogue flows smoothly and realistically portrays teen anxieties. For example, while talking to Sara, Kristen exclaims: “I’ll probably go all through high school without a boyfriend, so I might as well enjoy it when it happens to my only friend!” Though Laurel is supposed to be the bad girl, Sara is not very thoughtful herself—she lies to Kristen and ditches her party to attend Ella’s bash. Later, Sara regrets her choice. A sweet side story is the special relationship the teen has with her grandmother.

Insecure girl meets mean girl—and learns to be herself—in this appealing tale.