Fifteen-year-old Nicole Sparks has decided to become whatever her newly famous fitness guru mother is not. When her mother leaves for a world tour, Colie is sent to stay with Mira, an aunt she doesn’t know in a North Carolina community far from the environment where she’s developed her current persona aided by jet black hair, a lip ring and inhibited by a constant struggle with her weight. To heighten Colie’s lack of confidence, her singularly dressed aunt seems to be the town’s laughing stock, and there’s unfinished business on more than one level in this relative’s eccentric life. Her emerging friendships with two young women who work at the café where she gets a job and a shy male artist just a bit older than Colie threaten to crash when girls from school show up as tourists. Dessen has written a deeply affecting, humorous novel about appearances and survivors, about people who find out who they want to be and then remember who they are midst the pressures of conformity and a legacy of family expectation.

Never underestimate the power of friendship.
 
When Colie goes to spend the summer at the beach, she doesn’t expect much.
 
But Colie didn’t count on meeting Morgan and Isabel.
 
Through them, she learns what true friendship is all about, and finally starts to realize her potential.
 
And that just might open the door to her first chance at love. . . .
 
“A down-to-earth Cinderella story. . . captures that special feeling.” —The New York Post
 
Also by Sarah Dessen:
Along for the Ride
Dreamland
Just Listen
Lock and Key
The Moon and More
Someone Like You
That Summer
This Lullaby
The Truth About Forever
What Happened to Goodbye