Secrets of Truth and Beauty - Megan Frazer

Summary:

And the first runner up is...

When Dara Cohen was little, she was a bright, shiny star. She was the cutest seven-year-old who ever sang Ella Fitzgerald, and it was no wonder she was crowned Little Miss Maine.

That was then. Now Dara's seventeen and she's not so little anymore. So not little, that when her classmates find out about her illustrious resume, their jaws drop. That's just one of her many problems. Another is that her control-freak mom won't get off her case about anything. Yet the one that hurts the most is the family secret: Dara has an older sister her parents tried to erase from their lives.

When a disastrously misinterpreted English project lands her in the counselor's office--and her parents pull her out of school to save face--Dara realizes she has a decision to make. She can keep following the rules and being misunderstood, or she can finally reach out to the sister she's never met--a sister who lives on a collective goat farm in Massachusetts. Dara chooses B. What follows is a summer of revelations, some heartbreaking, some joyous; of friendship, romance, a local beauty pageant; and choices. And as autumn approaches, Dara finds she may have to let go of everything she's taken for granted in order to figure out who she really is, and what family really means.

Review:

Characters

I REALLY loved all the characters in this book. They were all original and had their own voices from the very start, which I really liked. I could really relate to most of the characters in this book, even if we didn't have a lot in common. This book pretty much changed that streak of books I was reading where I didn't like the characters or felt like I couldn't relate to them.

Plot

Uhh, it had a slow start, but besides that the plot was very original and I liked it. Once the slowness of the start went away, it was a very fast read, and I was at the end before I even expected to be. But, very original plot and storyline. It's a new twist on the cliche of "finding yourself" or "being who you really are" and it was a nice change.

Wow Factor

Pretty wowed. I loved it, and besides that slowness in the beginning it was really good. Four hearts.



hope.