KISSING BRENDAN CALLAHAN

Aspiring writers, first kisses and mother-daughter conflicts are standard fare in teen novels. Newcomer Amessé, however, turns the ordinary into a clever turn of events with convincing characters. Sarah’s mother, a top editor at the local newspaper, has organized the community Preservation Fair with a teen writing contest. She not only forbids Sarah from entering (because of a conflict of interest), but is forced to use her least favorite author, Antonia DeMarco, as the judge. She complicates Sarah’s life more by encouraging her to spend time with Brendan Callahan, her best friend’s son. Sarah hates Brendan, adores Antonia’s Enraptured Thorns in My Heart and accepts defeat until Brendan kisses her, she becomes Antonia’s personal assistant and she enters the writing contest under a pen name. The only shock bigger than discovering that her role model is a lying, narcissistic author with writer’s block is losing the writing contest entries. When Sarah turns to her mother for help, they find mutual respect as mother and daughter—and as writers. (Fiction. 10-13)