KEEPING THE MOON

Dessen (Someone Like You, 1998, etc.) continues her run of engagingly cast stories about women helping each other through life-altering experiences. Former fat girl Colie Sparks arrives in her aunt’s small town physically fit but still bowed by memories of years of humiliation. Under the influence of eccentric Aunt Mira’s rock-steady self-assurance, witnessing a marvelously contentious friendship between twenty-something waitresses Morgan and Isabel, and becoming aware of shy, artistically gifted Norman—who goes from being “so not the guy for me,” to one whose smiles she feels “all the way to my toes”—Colie passes in subtly marked stages to the point where she can let her past go, although not before exacting exquisite revenge on one of her past tormenters. Rich in sharply observed relationships, deftly inserted wisdom, romances ending and beginning, and characters who are not afraid to pick themselves up and try again, Dessen’s tale will leave readers thoughtful, amused, reassured—and sorry when it concludes. (Fiction. 12-15)