The Fruit of My Lipstick (All about Us Series #2) by Shelley Adina

Enthusiasm and insecuritiesby LeAnneH

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May 26, 2009: The titles in this series are great! The story is told in a lively voice full of the enthusiasms and insecurities of a modern teen. Only the first couple pages fall into the explaining trap of first-person fiction when the narrator tells us who everyone is instead of showing the relationships in dialog and action as she does so well in the rest of the book. Instant messaging effectively carries the mystery of who is selling exam answers. Gillian herself is American-born Chinese and her friends present a nice racial and cultural mix despite the posh, boarding school setting. The plot centers around the abuse of a jerk-of-a-boyfriend, who makes sly racial and gender comments as well as being obviously threatened by Gillian's brains. Gillian's response exposes some of the excuses women use to put up with such behavior. At one point I thought the story was going in the direction of an eating disorder, but that thread was not developed as it could have been given the low self-image Gillian was moving toward under the boyfriend's influence. Gillian's Christian life and prayers are integral to who she is and how she handles her problems. Only occasionally do the prayers fall into churchy language, e.g. page 112. The discussion with Shani about where she is spiritually in the last chapter had little to do with the story and felt tacked on for the benefit of the reader (or to appeal to a Christian publisher.) I did not find it credible that the whole junior class could be given straight Fs on their transcript if the cheater was not exposed. I can't imagine that would be legal. My low rating really reflects my lack of enthusiasm for high school fiction as a genre more than the quality of the writing. The book definitely deserves the notice it should get as a finalist for the YA Christy Award.

Fun YA Lit with serious topicsby Deborah_K

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May 13, 2009: Once again, I had a blast reading the second book in the "It's All About Us" series. This is one of the most fun YA books I've read. Shelley Adina writes very well in a teen voice and really makes you feel like a bunch of 16-17 year olds are writing this book. It's a very fast read but so enjoyable that you'll want to reread it again (or at least get the other books in the series). This is one of the very few Christian fiction book that I have read that features an Asian American lead character. Especially one that is not an immigrant or an adoptee. I know it's a topic I always bring up with there's an AA character but it's something that needs to be the rule and not the exception. The book is great at showing how an Asian American tries to fit in between two cultures. You can see Gillian struggle to fit in the two worlds with her parents and with her life at school. Her mother reminded me very much of my own mother. I could practically hear my own mother's voice every time Gillian's mother appeared.

This book features a storyline that is very relevant with teen girls and dating. Abusive relationships need to be talked about to girls. They need to know that it's not always physical abuse that one needs to be on the lookout for. Verbal and emotional abuse need to be avoided as well. Lucas was a jerk. He started off being nice, but once he had Gillian wrapped around his finger, he just went off the deep end. It pained me to see him treat her like this and her either not noticing or just shrugging it off. Girls do NOT deserve that type of treatment, no matter what they've done! The scene that really got me was that he wanted to take her to Angel Island. For the majority of the readers of this book, this would have meant nothing of importance. However as a history major, I've studied about Angel Island and would have been horrified as a Chinese American if a guy I liked decided to take me there for a romantic date. This guy seriously had major issues and I was so happy with the ending of the book.

There is also a mystery involving a student selling exam answers to the popular kids. While I guessed who the perpetrator was, I was happy to read how things turned out. However I was NOT happy at how the school handled the situation with Gillian. Very unprofessional of them to condemn someone with all the required evidence. You'd think a boarding school wouldn't want bad publicity!

I really enjoyed this book and was sad to see it end. This whole series has been wonderful and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next addition. If you're a fan of Gossip Girl and want something a bit tamer, this book comes HIGHLY recommended.