TANGLED

Brimming with girl appeal, Mackler’s emotionally generous, character-driven novel tells the story of four vacationing teens whose lives are forever changed after crossing paths on a tropical island. The first protagonist is Jena, a chatty, insecure 16-year-old, who feels fat and imperfect. This is never more true than when she’s around Skye, who, at 17, is rich, beautiful and an actress to boot. Skye treats Jena with barely disguised condescension, deliberately going after the hunky, athletic Dakota, a fellow vacationer who initially showed an interest in Jena. For his part, Dakota, still shaken by the untimely death of his mostly off-again girlfriend, is there at the express command of his divorced mother, who wants him to bond with his younger brother, Owen, a shy blogger who hides his considerable smarts behind his laptop. The novel, which has strong romantic undertones, chronicles the teens’ interconnections and the psychological growth that results, deftly demonstrating that people aren’t always who they seem to be. (Fiction. 14 & up)