Testimony from Your Perfect Girl

By: Kaui Hart Hemmings

Narrated by: Amy Landon

A compulsively readable story that celebrates the awkward complexity of teenage relationships--with their families, and with each other, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Descendants.

Annie Tripp has everything she needs--Italian sweaters, vintage chandelier earrings, and elite ice skating lessons--but all that changes when her father is accused of scamming hundreds of people out of their investments. Annie knows her dad wasn't at fault, but she and her brother are exiled to their estranged aunt and uncle's house in a run-down part of Breckenridge--until the trial blows over.

Life with her new family isn't quite up to Annie's usual standard of living, but surprisingly, pretending to be someone else offers a freedom she's never known. As Annie starts to make real friends for the first time, she realizes she has more in common with her aunt and uncle than she ever wanted to know. As the family's lies begin to crumble and truths demand consequences, Annie must decide which secrets need to see the light of day . . . and which are worth keeping.

YA fare on the literary side

I am a fan of Kaui Hart Hemmings's novels for grown ups (especially The Descendants) so I was intrigued to learn that she has been writing YA novels as well. They don't bowl me over but they are totally decent stories. I preferred this one to "Juniors" and I really felt for the main character as she started to figure out that maybe her dad wasn't the good guy she thought he was and that maybe her privileges come at a severe cost to others.