REVIEW for Secrets at St-Jude's New Girl

TITLE: Secrets at St-Jude's New Girl

AUTHOR: Carmen Reid

GENRE: YA

RATING: 4 Stars

I was lucky enough to receive this book directly from the author, Carmen Reid.

I had read Carmen Reid's adults novel in the past and was quite excited when I saw that she had written a YA novel.

This is the story of "Yank" girl Gina who is sent to Scotland, by her mom, to study and live at a boarding school. Gina's mom, who studied at the school when she was a teen, hopes that it will give Gina some much needed structure and teach her that life is not all about clothes and boys.

Gina, who is less than happy about this soon finds herself liking her 3 bunk mates and what follows is a great read.

All of the characters in this YA novel are immediately likable (okay with a few exceptions!). The description of the boarding school and of the "Daffodil room" made me feel as though I was right there. I instantly liked all of the girls, including Amy. All of the main characters are extremely diversed but, somehow, they all gravitated to each other and managed to get into all kinds of hilarious situations together. What I also liked about this book is that while each of the girls play to their own strengths, there is no petty jealousy or evil plotting and gossiping against each other - although this book does touch on some serious issues (finally! an English book that gives a clear definition of the word snogging!!! - I always wondered exactly what that word meant and I now know), the book never gets bogged down into the standard corny, overly serious stuff.

Of course, there are dances and boys and more boys and lots of talk of clothes, etc. (ah to be 15 again!) but the author manages to blend both the petty teen stuff with the more adult issues (drinking, relationships and more importantly, friendships).

I really, really enjoyed this book and up to the very last page, I was praying that there would be some hint as to whether this book may possibly turn into a series....I can't give it away, you will have to read it yourself, but this is definitely a great read.