San Francisco – Present Day

Victoria Lee finds herself in a position that many teens might envy. She is rich and living in a McMansion in the San Francisco Bay Area all by herself; her parents are busy running the business they established in Hong Kong. Fantastic, right? Except that she is alone, in a new place, without any of her familiar friends and no family. Well, they did come to visit and left lots of advice on how to meet their expectations. Victoria dreams of a career in fashion design, but her parents won’t even consider it. She finds herself occupying a house, which is not a home, just an investment, going to Manderly Prep, the school for the snobby, rich kids of Northern California, where she knows hardly anybody. Of course, there are Cindy and Maggie, who are different from the other students at Manderly, and Steve Heller, the hunk she tutored in Chinese and lusted after last semester. He doesn’t seem to notice her at all this semester -- he doesn’t have a girlfriend, so maybe he’s just too busy. Victoria is lonely and bored, all at the same time. Then there is also Brooke -- her “Big Sister” who finally shows up to guide her, one semester after she begins attending the school. Brooke is pushing Victoria into all manner of things that she does not want to do, claiming by doing them she will look good to colleges. Isn’t high school supposed to be fun?

RICH GIRL follows MANDERLY PREP, the first in the BFF series, and follows the protagonist through the angst of being a teenager and attending high school in a new place. Author Carol Culver uses the example of a real private prep school in the Bay Area and draws on the memories of her own children to write a YA novel that is sure to interest teen readers. The pleasure of reading about a character with a fairy-tale life, whose problems turn out to be worse than readers' own problems, is more fun than the real teen celebrities we read about. Victoria is rich and a little spoiled, which might make her insufferable, but she is just modest enough to be likeable. A new secondary character in the series is Gabe Thomas, quirky and opinionated, but he turns out to be just what Victoria needs, a friend and possible boyfriend. I did like the fact that Victoria did not convert to agreeing with everything Gabe said or did. He doesn’t rescue her; she rescues herself. Gradually she comes to like and respect Gabe, but she remains true to herself. RICH GIRL is an even better story than MANDERLY PREP, taking off in a new direction, less like a fairy tale, but still unique. RICH GIRL is an entertaining continuation of the series but will stand alone as well. A third in the series, THE GUY NEXT DOOR, comes out in May.

Lisa Baca