Amazing Grace by Megan Shull

While I slog through a book about business and housing, I decided to take a break and spend an evening reading Amazing Grace . I'm trying to read more young adult fiction to get a sense of what's out there.

I suppose you could do worse than read, or have your teen read, Amazing Grace . The heroine, 15-year-old Grace Kincaid, starts the story by leaving behind her stellar tennis career and celebrity status to live undercover as a regular girl in Alaska. (It's all very Hannah Montana meets Northern Exposure).

The good news for parents and the teenagers reading this book is that Grace has good values, even as she makes mistakes related to drinking and boys. There's a nice message about therapy being helpful, and about being in control of your life. Even the fact that the plot is formulaic isn't a huge deal. But the book suffers from clunky writing, with Grace's father's death being shoehorned in, and too many swooning motifs on the attractiveness of love interest Teague.

All in all, it's fine for a middle schooler, and I look forward to reading more from Shull. However, for a high school girl looking for something current, I would steer them toward Gayle Forman's If I Stay or Carolyn Macker's The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things .