REVENGE, ICE CREAM AND OTHER THINGS BEST SERVED COLD

 More mean-girl high jinks in the Hamptons in this follow-up to Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend (2014).

In the first book, 16-year-old Gemma had returned to the Hamptons to stay with her father at his rich producer friend's house and make amends to her childhood friend Hallie, whom Gemma wronged when she was 11. Plans went terribly awry: Vengeful Hallie stole Gemma's boyfriend, Teddy, and then Gemma fell for Hallie's brother, Josh—but then Hallie broke them up, making Gemma out to be the bad guy. Now Gemma has decided to stay the summer to prove her innocence and Hallie's guilt to Teddy and Josh. Two new teens arrive, Gwyneth and Ford. Gemma's known them for years and has a longtime crush on Ford, who is a surfing hottie as well as a supersmart computer programmer. Gwyneth is making a documentary, so she insists that everyone in the house wear miniature cameras around their necks. The revenge plans are ratcheted up here with elaborate, multistage setups (involving the cameras, of course) that, though defying believability, are a plot complexity to behold. Readers will find Gemma's lack of romantic decisiveness frustrating; she swoons over whomever she’s with. Ultimately, it's tough to stand firmly behind Gemma; though she doesn't harbor the poison that Hallie does, she's like a reality star bemoaning her fate: The fact is that she signed up for it.

As satisfying as watching a reality show but with a finer-tuned plot.