When Marisa accidentally catches her best friend's boyfriend cheating, she opens herself up to a whole host of girls who want her to find out if their significant others are also two-timing scumbags. What she doesn't expect is for her old friend Kendall to move back into town and ask for the same favor. Kendall and Marisa were friends d competitors en they were little, and that fierce competitive streak is still going strong. Kendall brags that she got into the elite honors program of the neighboring high school, Templeton program Marisa was accepted to but cannot attend, as her parents can't afford the out-of-district fee. Marisa starts hanging out with Kendall's boyfriend, and sparks fly. But then Marisa's friend Charlie gets accused of distributing test answers at Templeton, and it's up to Marisa, now a master snoop, to clear her name. Though Marisa isn't quite as sharp as teen supersleuth Veronica Mars, this is a wholesome read. Entangled relationships muddle the story, but the cheating scandal keeps readers engaged.

First, Marisa Palmera spots her best friend's boyfriend making out with another girl. Then her old frenemy, white girl Kendall, comes back into her life and enlists Marisa to spy on her boyfriend, white guy TJ, whom Kendall suspects is two-timing her. For the sake of the job, white Marisa befriends TJ; he's definitely hiding something, but it might not be what Kendall and Marisa think. As Marisa and TJ's friendship grows, she finds herself falling for him, landing in the throes of a moral crisis. In a misguided act of gratitude, Kendall sets up a website called Busted ("Don't hate the player…bust his ass!") to advertise Marisa's "services" for a fee, and before long, Marisa is the go-to gal for exposing high school infidelities (the "clients" all appear to be white, heterosexual teenage girls). A subplot in which Marisa's best friend, white girl Charlie, is wrongly accused of stealing test answers adds another element of mystery that might be connected to TJ's shady activity. Marisa's biting first-person narration is enhanced by hilarious, sarcastic volleying back and forth with her brother, Nick. Throughout, girls, including Marisa, employ such insults as "tramp," "bimbo," and "drama queen" to put down and devalue other girls. The demeaning language goes both ways: "slut" and "bitch" are equally applied to boys.Good for a few chuckles. (Fiction. 13-18)