Lexile = 710
Before I tell you why I didn't really like this book, you need to know that it seems to be aimed at a younger (read middle-school) audience. The main characters are 14 and 16, which is usually a good indicator of who the author thinks will be reading the work.
Kayla(16) and Avery(14) are thrown together by Avery's father for a summer in Spain. Kayla and Avery used to get together as very young children, but they couldn't be more different. The author's attempts to show their differences results in bland stereotypes of the characters, which is what really bothered me in the book. Avery is beautiful, athletic, popular, and stuck-up. Kayla is poor, overweight, smart, and kind. Oh my goodness, what will happen when these two are forced to be together all summer?
Avery and Kayla find out why they were "invited" together, which is some kind of big family secret. That all seemed like invented drama for me as well.... but maybe it would be high drama for a younger reader.
Haddix is one of my favorite authors. I love both of her dystopian series: The Missing and The Shadow Children. This is an ok book; it just wasn't for me.
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