SUMMER SECRETS

The characters deepen slightly in Amy Green’s new go-round (Boy Trouble, 2010), but Webb keeps the focus on fun in this lively chick-lit sequel. Amy Green, a 13-year-old Irish everygirl, goes to Cork to vacation with her blended and extended family. Amy’s messy, harried, TV- and junk-food–allowing mother Sylvie immediately locks horns with her boyfriend’s more organically oriented and perfectly groomed sister Prue; Gramps runs into an old flame who’s still holding a near-homicidal grudge (dead rat anyone?); and Prue’s pudgy and furious son Denis has a serious eating issue. Worse, Amy’s boyfriend, Seth, sends letters and emails that show an increasing preoccupation with a bikini-clad female. But there are bright spots to be had, including a seriously sexy gardener, and of course, Amy’s 17-year-old aunt, Clover, who is spending her gap year working for a teen lifestyle magazine. Various plot elements come together when Amy accompanies her aunt to Miami so Clover can interview a rising star and teenage idol named Matt Munroe. By this point in the story, there are so many unlikely coincidences and credibility-shredding character connections that any sense of reality is completely and utterly lost. Despite some touching moments and serious life lessons, it’s mostly a frothy confection, though, and girls should be willing to suspend their disbelief and simply enjoy themselves. Good fun. (Fiction. 11 & up)