Lust

December 5, 2005
In this launch title of Wasserman's titillating Seven Deadly Sins series, popular high school seniors, including a designer-dressed transfer student from New York City, scheme to win the objects of their affection—even if it means busting up a friend's relationship, or making a bold play for a teacher. Readers may tire of predictable characters and situations: Beth, "the blah blonde," is with jock Adam, player Kane wants Beth, while both sultry Harper and bold Kaia want Adam (Kaia's interest is only temporary—she's really after the new British teacher, who makes a pass at Beth), and sharp Miranda has fallen for Kane. In an unusual twist from the Gossip Girls–style mode, the book is not set in a glamorous city, but instead a run-down California town: Harper has to mail-order her Victoria's Secret underwear and the kids hold a private formal dance–after-party at an abandoned motel. The narrative rotates through the different character's perspectives as they deal with their love lives and resulting complications (including scheming, feuding, cheating and, in Miranda's case, bulimia). The narrative brims with gooey romance-style passages ("She could reach out, take his hand in hers beneath the table, massage his fingertips and then press him against her body, so hungry for his touch"), and will likely appeal only on a guilty-pleasure level. Ages 14-up.

January 1, 2006
Gr 9 Up -Grace, CA, is populated by bored young adults who are obsessed with sex. This first entry in the series contains enough gossiping, scheming, and unrequited love to categorize it as a teen soap opera. Harper can have almost any boy she wants. Unfortunately, she wants Adam, who's infatuated with Beth, but she is not ready to consummate their relationship. Adam's frustration leads him to sleep with Kaia, the new girl who may usurp Harper's position as most popular. After Kaia seduces Adam, she moves on to Kane, who's as self-centered as she is. Meanwhile, Harper's friend Miranda longs for a date with the egotistical Kane. The only adult character is a teacher who makes advances on one of his students. Despite all, this is an entertaining novel. The same impulse that lures teens to "Desperate Housewives" or Zoey Dean's -A-List - and Cecily von Ziegesar's -Gossip Girls - series (both Little, Brown) will draw teens to it." -Stephanie L. Petruso, Anne Arundel County Public Library, Odenton, MD"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2005
Gr. 8-11. In this first book in a new series for teens, Seven Deadly Sins, readers are introduced to Harper Grace, whose ancestors founded the now-declining town of Grace, California: Miranda, Harper's ugly-duckling best friend; frustrating good-girl Beth; Adam, who just happens to be both Harper's childhood friend and current fantasy; and new-girl Kaia, whose greatest private fun is attracting already-attached boys. Readers also meet gorgeous bad-boy Kane and the new, also gorgeous French teacher, Jack Powell. Drinking, suggestive conversations, and competition for love and friendships, all somehow related to the book's title theme of lust, develop against the backdrop of Everyteen's high school, Haven High. A teen version of TV's " Desperate Housewives,"" "this" "is marginally written, but still lightweight, tantalizing, soap-opera fare with just enough loose ends to draw readers back to its subsequent proposed books, each of which will focus on a different deadly sin.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)