Diamonds are a Teen's Friend

Diamonds Are a Teen's Best Friend by Allison Rushby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Nessa Joanne Mulholland has a slight Marilyn Monroe addiction and she tries to channel her no matter what in a sort of "What Would Marilyn Do"system. She is thirteen and soon to be fourteen, has just shipped out to a new location with her professor father as he travels to his new job in France as well as conducting a study about vacation romances. Her whole life is turned upside down when she spots Holly Isle on the boat and Holly actually speaks to her and OMG! she befriends Nessa. Holly even has a high school aged nephew named Marc traveling with her.

In homage to Gentleman Prefer Blondes, Nessa dreams up a system to help save Holly's love life since she has just dumped fiancee number three. I know, this is a bit of an extreme fantasy that a thirteen year old girl can be BFF with a movie star but the story makes you believe it can happen and Nessa has such a good heart and brain that the whole thing seems really plausible. There is such chemistry between her and Marc and when they kissed, it was just so sweet. What wasn't sweet was when she got caught up in her lies after trying to fix Holly up with her personal paparazzi, Ted.

The ending, while a bit predictable to my grown up eyes, is just what a younger teen would demand. This is an easy to read and fun story which is perfect for reluctant readers. It is a pretty clean read with just a few kisses worked in and some mentions of adults using alcohol. Do yourself a favor and stock up on some maraschino cherries before you start this one since you will be craving them as you get into the story

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