After their friend Isabelle is dumped yet again by her cheating boyfriend Shawn, right before senior prom, friends Vivi and Lane concoct a plan to ensure that Izzy moves on once and for all. Together, they invent a dreamy, distracting new guy for her. Working with Vivi's geeky brother, Marshall, they create a MySpace for Brandon, their creation, and they coerce Marshall into impersonating Brandon in e-mails to Izzy. The plan seems successful; Izzy's depression lifts, and reconciliation with Shawn seems unlikely. Then Izzy wants to meet Brandon, and Vivi and Lane scramble to find a guy willing to play the part. Like Brian's novel The V Club (2004), this is produced by Alloy Entertainment, the packagers responsible for Gossip Girl and other chick-lit series, and readers will recognize many similar elements: predictable story reversals, cultural references that may date tomorrow, and gorgeous, rich teens. Chick-lit fans will overlook the story's clichés and improbabilities, though, and fall headfirst, along with the characters, into the made-for-teen-movie romances and the friendships ich always come first.

Determined to convince their friend, Isabelle, that she is better off without her two-timing boyfriend, Shawn Littig (aka Sluttig), Lane and Vivi decide to construct a MySpace page for the perfect boyfriend. The only problem is that he exists only in their minds. Lane's younger brother, Marshall, who helps pen the responses to Isabelle, is taking things a little too seriously. But there is hardly enough time for Lane and Vivi to worry about the outcome of their scheme: Prom is only weeks away and they have their own boy troubles. Lane has a crush on Curtis, her BFF, and Vivi goes through boys at a blistering pace. A fun story of three friends trying to survive those last few tumultuous weeks of high school—what it loses because of predictability, it makes up for with its humor and its fast pace. (Fiction. YA)

After Isabelle gets dumped yet again by her sleazy boyfriend, her two well-meaning friends invent a dream guy for her, hoping to cheer her up (and keep her from taking him back). Domineering, sharp-tongued Vivi overrides meek Lane’s objections and has Lane help create a MySpace page for “Brandon,” then gets her younger brother to pretend to be him while IM’ing Izzy; later Vivi bribes Jonathan, a boy from a neighboring school, to pose as Brandon and ask Isabelle to the prom. Readers can guess that this scheme does not turn out to be as “harmless” as Vivi envisions, especially when she herself falls for Jonathan. In fact, except for a few small twists toward the end, the book follows a predictable course, right down to the girls’ personal growth (Lane, for example, finally stands up to Vivi). This would be easier to swallow if Brian’s (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys) characterizations were more imaginative or her prose less standard-issue (“Her logic didn’t make her heart hurt any less, and it didn’t make the unshed tears recede from her eyes”). Ultimately, the inevitable chaos—and happy ending—may be all that keep readers turning pages. Ages 14-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Dec.)

Gr 7-10-A light, predictable romp. Vivi, Lane, Isabelle, and Curtis have all been friends since middle school. Vivi is the alpha teen among them, and Lane goes along with her even when she knows better. Both girls are concerned when Isabelle's boyfriend is caught kissing someone else: senior prom is a month away, and Izzy has looked forward to it forever. The two devise a plan for Vivi's slightly geeky brother to contact Izzy on MySpace, playing the role of "Brandon"; at a theater audition, the friends meet and induce Jonathan to be the fake boyfriend in person. While Vivi coaches him to be Izzy's dream date, they fall in love. There's more to the plot, of course, but all's well that ends well in this frothy concoction in which characters are likable and supportive of one another, and not too many product names are dropped. The story is pure sugar, but in a world of fast reads where being nasty is considered cool, a little sweetness is welcome.-Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.