Happy release day! Lauren Mechling’s new book, Dream Girl, is out today, and so we continue with part deux of the Lauren extravaganza.
Before I post part two of my interview with Lauren, though, I have to tell you all about her wonderful book.
Our heroine, Claire Voyante (Get it? Claire? Voyante?), has been having weird visions for a good long time. But just after she turns fifteen, her fabulous grandmother gives her a cameo necklace that changes everything. She starts to have strange dreams in black and white, and she’s not quite sure what to do with them. Meanwhile, she’s started attending a dreary but renowned NYC public school, and she’s having trouble making friends until she meets heiress Becca Shuttleworth and gets embroiled in the Shuttleworth family secrets.
Dream Girl is like Nancy Drew — with which I was obsessed for a good three years, until I turned ten and was told by my school librarian that Nancy Drew was not good reading for a girl my age (!?!) — but better. Lauren, who co-wrote The Rise and Fall of a 10th Grade Social Climber and two other Social Climber books, really shows her chops here. She’s witty, sarcastic in a good way, and her teen heroine couldn’t be more lovable. Besides which, YA has for some reason been suffering from a dearth of mystery books lately, so it’s great that Lauren has come along to fill that void.
Lauren expressed some concerns in part one of our interview about whether readers would be turned off by the lack of “sexytime antics.” Au contraire! There may not be any actual full-frontal, rated R, S-E-X, but there is plenty of sexual tension. And I for one am very, very psyched to see what happens in Claire’s love life in future books.
I’m a hundred percent serious when I say I’ve been waiting for months to review this book and give it all the gold stars I have. (Twenty-seven, to be precise.) Dream Girl is not to be missed. I read the book again for the third time last night, and it’s every bit as good as I remembered it.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled interview. (more…)