2013 book 47

Amy Spalding's The Reece Malcolm List
Hope Larson keeps talking about this on Twitter, so I figured I'd check it out--it's a cute story about a teenager who, after her father dies, goes to live with her heretofore unknown mother, a famous writer living in LA. (There are a lot of YA books about teenagers being whisked away to live with heretofore unknown famous parents, I don't really know why.) Anyway, the writing here was engaging enough that I kept reading, EVEN THOUGH the main character is super into musical theater and talks about like callbacks and auditions all the time (musical theater is so not my bag), and EVEN THOUGH the backstory to her childhood without her mother is easily the most ridiculous thing I have ever read in a YA novel (tied only by her love interest's backstory). I did like that teenage relationships are treated much more realistically than in most other YA books, and like I said, the narrative voice is strong. But "cute" is still the best word. B/B+.