Jennifer Harris is able to do what every adolescent girl hopes for--she reinvents herself between middle school and high school from the tubby outcast with a lisp to a beautiful individual with all the right friends. She loses weight, changes her name to Jenna, transfers schools and even gets the perfect boyfriend. But she also has the same fears as every teenage girl--she is afraid that all of the perfect people in her perfect life will see past the skinny exterior and expose her for the fraud she believes she is.
At first glance, this book may seem like a pretty mainstream YA novel about a girl struggling with self-image. But there is so much more depth to Jenna's life, and thanks to the return of her childhood best friend Cameron Quick, Jenna begins to see that she is a lot stronger than she first believes.
Though this novel is about childhood sweethearts and the love that binds them through shared experiences as well as time apart, this is not a teen romance. It is the story of how people help us see who we truly are and that we have the inner strength to face our pasts, no matter how horrific, and live up to a greater future.
I found this book both relatable and powerful without being over the top or trite. It elicited a lot of emotions that I am still coming to terms with even hours after finishing, and I'm sure I'll still be thinking about it even days from now. With rich characters and a totally new concept, I enjoyed every minute of this book.
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