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It’s true! I also write young adult novels under the name Kerry Cohen Hoffmann. I’m not entirely sure why I’m so drawn to this form. Probably it’s due to the fact that my writing voice so often slips into that of a teenager – such a pivotal time in my life – that my work thrives there, as well.

2006 ALA Quick Pick for Young Adult

2006 Oregon Book Award finalist

Easy. At the ripe young age of fourteen Jessica has discovered that getting the attention she wants is just that – easy. It’s not the attention of a divorced mother who spends all of her time grieving over a broken marriage. Nor is it that of a father with a new girlfriend who’s moving on with his life. It’s certainly not the attention of a clueless older sister or a best friend since grade school who still acts like she’s in grade school. No. For some reason being noticed by her friends and family seens to have become almost impossible. Boys – and men – are a different matter altogether. With the right clothes and attitude, Jessica realizes that she can get all the male attention she wants. What she doesn’t realize is how easy it is to get more than you’re ready for.

Ever since her brother Mark’s accidental death, fifteen-year-old Lindsey has become the good girl—good daughter, good friend, good student. She places everyone’s needs before her own. Secretly, though, she’s frustrated by her family’s silence about Mark; she wishes she had the nerve to tell off one of her so-called best friends, a queen-bee who wants the new boy at school for herself; and she longs to ditch obligations that prevent her from starring in the school musical. But instead of speaking her mind, Lindsey does something else . . . she starts to steal—and immediately wonders how good she really is.

All the pressure to be what others expect of her fuels Lindsey’s impulse to take things. Each time the risk becomes greater, and each time she thinks she’ll be caught. Wants to be caught. And then, finally, she is. . .

Zoë loves Henry.

Henry dumps Zoë.

Zoë wants Henry back – at any cost.

Zoë’s two best friends come up with a plan to help Zoë get what she thinks she wants. The plan: make Henry jealous.

But the plan takes a surprising turn…

Spanning thirty-one days in the cycle of a breakup, Kerry Cohen Hoffmann’s funny and touching novel depicts a girl whose single-minded focus on her ex-boyfriend has pulled her far from the person she most needs to win back – herself.