Girlfriend Material by Melissa Kantor Book Review

Girlfriend Material by Melissa Kantor
(Disney, Hardcover, May 2009)
Rating:

Kate's vision of a perfect summer involved hanging out at her home in Utah with her best friend. Instead, her mom drags her along to Cape Cod to stay with family friends. Her parents' marriage is crumbling around her and she is forced to hang out with her mom's friends' daughter who obviously hates her. Kate is convinced that her summer is ruined until Adam starts to notice her.

Girlfriend Material was too full of complications for my taste. First, Kate's parents are fighting. Second, Kate doesn't get along with her sister. Third, she's forced to hang out with a girl who used to be like a best friend but now, for some unknown reason, doesn't like her. Fourth, the boy she likes may just be leading her on. Fifth, she has to teach tennis lessons to an ungrateful girl whose dad yells the entire time Kate's teaching the lessons. I could go on but you get my point. This book is well-written and I really wanted to like Kate. She seems like someone who has always been sure of herself until this summer. Unfortunately, her life got in my way. With that many issues, it was hard to believe a completely happy ending would occur. This book could have been about so much more than a girl wondering if she could ever be girlfriend material, but the serious aspects of the book were played down and, at the end, everything was tied together in a pretty pink bow.