Meet Maya, a Thai-American gal whose parents make her work at their restaurant every minute she’s not studying. Which is what she does most. Study. Because she’s determined to never, ever get a grade below an A, and to get into Stanford, and to get a merit-based scholarship to the aforementioned university, and to leave Michigan behind forever.

Maya is refreshingly not interested in popularity, or designer clothes, or prom. She’s one of those wonderful folks who embrace the inner nerd. In fact, she sort of despises the popular kids. Not in the way that most of us on the outside looking in do, (they’re evil and spoiled) but in a more un-interested “they’re so trashy” way. Did I mention yet that she’s awesome?

Problem: Maya gets assigned to tutor the super-popular Camden King, who is supposedly appallingly stupid and ridiculously trashy.

Of course all her problems start the minute Camden walks into her life. Stanford? The merit-based scholarship? These are beginning to look like far-fetched dreams. Also? She has six weeks to come up with ten thousand dollars.

I won’t say any more here, except that it’s a really enchanting read– blurbed by none other than Lauren Myracle herself — and that you should definitely investigate it next time you’re on a book-buying or borrowing expedition.

Oh, no. I will say one more thing: Cheva’s representation of Asian-American life is really on the mark. Yes, it’s supposed to be funny, and yes, you’re allowed to laugh. But Cheva (full last name: Chevapravatdumrong) does a great job of capturing the kind of pressure a lot of Asian kids deal with from their parents. Hmm. Actually, maybe I should do an Asian-American Lit roundup one of these days soon. There’s some good stuff floating around out there, She’s So Money included.