Penny misses her old life, before her parents separated and she moved from Manhattan to a small seaside community. All summer, she works in her mother's new cupcake bakery, helping out, but also hiding out from the local kids she dreads meeting. Besides confrontations with a mean girl, high school brings an unexpected friendship and more chances to see Marcus, the enigmatic boy she first met on the beach. This first-person novel records Penny's impressions of people in her new town, her experiences at her school, and her tentative steps in getting to know her first real boyfriend. Her looming fear of her parents' divorce, exacerbated by their reluctance to communicate with her, makes her a sensitive observer of the other family relationships she finds around her. While there may be too many stock characters here, Penny's a likable protagonist and the book has a bit more substance (yet no less humor) than the tipping tower of pink cupcakes on the cover might suggest.

To Penny, there's nothing great about Hog's Hollow, where her mom decided to move and open a bakery. Penny misses city life, struggles with her parents' separation, and is tormented by mean girls. Eventually--and predictably--she makes some friends (one a cute guy), and learns to appreciate small-town life. Though the story lacks originality, descriptions of Penny's cupcake creations are a treat.

Jaded Manhattan eighth grader Penny is bemused when she is whisked away from her dad to spend the summer in her mom's tiny hometown. Things go from bad to worse when Mom decides to stay in Hog's Hollow, open a cupcake bakery and enroll Penny at the local high school. Penny's sardonic first-person narration is sophisticated, but at heart she is still just a 13-year-old casualty of her parents' unraveling marriage and their inability to communicate with each other or with her. When she finds herself targeted for elaborate pranks by the local queen bee, she must dig deep to survive her freshman year. Much is familiar here: The characters are drawn with broad strokes—mysterious love interest, quirky best friend, evil nemesis—and the plot device by which the popular crowd is tricked into gaining weight will ring bells with readers who have seen Mean Girls . But Hepler's novel is greater than the sum of its parts, held together by Penny's genuine voice and emotions. Readers will root for Penny, a talented artist, as she develops her gifts and adapts to small-town life. (Fiction. 11-14)

What begins as a formulaic novel about Penny, a 13-year-old girl who’s uprooted from Manhattan to the podunk town of Hog’s Hollow (population 5,134) after her parents’ separation, quietly evolves into an endearing and poignant story about standing up to adversity and finding peace in what is, rather than holding out for what could be. Penny’s friendship with Tally, an outspoken free spirit and proud founder of the cheeky RPS Society (as in rock, paper, scissors), boosts Penny’s confidence (she’s being picked on by the popular clique at school) and teaches her that getting used to new surroundings takes effort—as well as a propped-up sense of humor. Penny’s burgeoning bond with Marcus, a cute boy with a troubled past and a shared propensity for working through problems while stargazing during moonlit walks on the beach, lends a touch of romance while remaining refreshingly true to age—Hepler (coauthor of <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Jars of Glass, among others) favors linked pinky fingers over sloppy kisses. And the trio’s various relationships with fill-in adults (Penny’s grandmother, Tally’s aunt) as confidantes is a welcome ingredient that makes for layered teen reading. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)