Quick and delightful

Vegan, Virgin, Valentine
By Caroline Mackler

A book to be neither savored nor sampled, but raced through from cover to cover.  Hey, it takes all kinds of books to make a world.

Aside from the terse description, "teenage girls with problems," this is not at all like The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.  It takes all kinds of teenage girls with all kinds of problems to make a world, too.

Some, like Mara Valentine, are driven by a need to please a pair of overprotective but well-meaning parents.  They won't admit it, but they're carrying a lot of guilt about "messing up" with their first daughter, Aimee, who dropped out of college and got pregnant at eighteen.  The fruit of the pregnancy was Vivienne Vail Valentine, who wisely chooses to go by the nickname, "V".

When Mara's parents bring Mara's niece V to live with them and attend Mara's high school, it's probably the best thing that ever happened to V.  Possibly the worst thing for Mara, though.