ROB&SARA.COM

Sara, a sheltered 16-year-old, becomes involved in an e-mail relationship with “Rob,” a disturbed boy who says he’s an inmate in a private school for wealthy juvenile offenders. She quickly falls in love with Rob when he praises the poetry she posts on a Web site, and refuses to break off the correspondence even when warned by one of Rob’s schoolmates that he’s a very sick young man. Rob’s apparent recovery comes with some highly improbable events. The entire narrative consists of their e-mails, so many that they eventually become tedious, although they retain some suspense for a reader who suspects that Sara may fall victim to an Internet predator. However, it turns out to be a real love story, perhaps unfortunately for some young readers who thereby may be encouraged to engage in such relationships. The e-mail format may attract plugged-in young readers. (Fiction. YA)