Mary Kennedy, Secrets of a South Beach Princess

Secrets of a South Beach Princess

Mary Kennedy

Berkley Jam, October 2006, $9.99, 245 pp.

ISBN 0425211967

On the surface, teenager Amber Fielding is the golden girl who has everything going for her. Her father owns the Fielding Hotel in South Beach, Florida, and they live in the Penthouse. She is a part-time model, with a publicity agent who is getting endorsements for her, and she recently had a two page spread in a magazine where she was dubbed the new "It Girl". She is not snobby and has a good work ethic, helping her father insure the hotel runs smoothly.

By the pool she meets Nick, a handsome sturdy young man who is staying with his mother, the reclusive retired movie star Ellen Crawford, at the Fielding Hotel. They immediately click, but he keeps sending her mixed signals, talking flirtatiously to her friend, and sending her other friend who he doesn't even know an expensive bouquet to cheer her up when she is hospitalized. When Amber learns that Nick betrayed her, she wants nothing more to do with him, but he isn't willing to let their relationship die before it begins.

Mary Kennedy writes entertaining novels around the teen-age audience. Beyond telling a good story, she explores teen angst, the pressure teens feel and the mistakes they make by giving in to the pressure. The protagonist may be fooled by people pretending to be nice, but she is nobody's fool, and she quickly learns from her mistakes. Readers would be proud to call her their daughter.