Her punishment is to spend the summer working on his Korean/Brazilian food truck. Her dad has always taken a relaxed approach to parenting, so Clara doesn't take him seriously at first. But he's not backing down. No summer loafing with her friends. No trip to a resort in Tulum with her mom.
As if that weren't enough, Clara will be working with Rose, her arch nemesis and the reason she's in this mess to start with. But it doesn't take long for her to realize Rose isn't quite the demon Clara thought she was. Maybe they could actually become friends. Is that even possible?
Plus, there's this cute guy named Hamlet, yep, Hamlet who works at the coffee kiosk near one of their stops. He isn't Clara's usual type, too nerdy, but somehow she always finds herself flirting with him.
As the summer progresses and she spends more time with Rose and Hamlet, Clara begins to change. She actually cares about things, like the food truck and other people's feelings, and it's more and more difficult to hang out with her old prankster friends.
Maurene Goo's new book has a bit of an identity crisis. It seems to want to be a romance, at least superficially, but it's really about Clara's internal struggle. Don't get me wrong, it does have romance. That's just not really the central focus of the book. This one was not my favorite because Clara is so obnoxious. She keeps making decisions that hurt other people, and everyone forgives her so easily, especially after her major climactic mistake. But, bonus points for character/author diversity, and it is a nice light read. The characters are older, but this one is fine for middle school.
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