Trish Cook, Overnight Sensation

Overnight Sensation

Trish Cook

NAL, Feb 2006, $9.99

ISBN: 0451217586

After successfully finding out who her biological father is, helping her best friend learn the identify of the anonymous boy madly in love with her, running a marathon, and breaking and making up with Z, Trace finds dipping into ice cream containers eight hours a day at the Mixed Up Creamery tedious. Though her retro 1980s Mom Bebe does not like it, Trace ponders spending the rest of the summer in Southern California with her dad Shamus before heading to Fairfield, Connecticut, for school.

Finally deciding she needs quality time with Shamus, Trace decides to go west. Z begs her to stay as they will soon drift off to separate colleges. Bebe tries the guilt trip insisting she needs her help as she listens to 1980s tunes deciding which will play at her wedding. Trace, a courageous sleuth, handles the pressure and leaves to spend the last few weeks left of vacation time with her father. Shamus provides Trace with a room, material comforts, and a nasty punk haircut so she can hide her identity from the tabloids though it was her butt that has become an OVERNIGHT SENSATION. She makes friends with teen rocker K.C. who is the only sunshine in her California stay as she fails to receive what she most needs, her dad's love; instead she gets his disproval for screwing up.

The sequel to the delightful teen tale SO LYRICAL is a wonderful, character-driven story of a girl seeking the fatherly love of a parent she recently met. The cast are wonderfully eccentric yet seem genuine as each has an impact on Trace just like she influences them. Just for the record, fans will appreciate this amusing family drama that will send teens jamming to ancient recordings by Queen.

Harriet Klausner