The story: Smiles has lived his whole life in the shadow of his father, tech giant Robert Smylie. Wanting to do something amazing on his own, he figures our a plan to help his neighbor Ben sell a top-secret mathematical formula to the government (and keep a cut for himself, of course). Everything goes along just fine--right up until Ben gets kidnapped; Smiles loses one girlfriend and finds another, and even discovers the truth about his mother's disappearance when he was a baby. All in just one weekend! With his entire inheritance at stake, it doesn't seem that the stakes could get any higher until the truth comes out...and all of a sudden, it does. All of a sudden, it's life or death. And not just HIS life, or his death.
June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence PG; Senxual content Pg-13; Nudity PG; Substance abuse PG-13; Magic & the occult G: GLBT content G; adult themes (corporate espionage, parental abandonment, tricky mathematical concepts) PG-13; overall rating PG-13.
Liz's comments: I liked this one a lot, though it probably is better for HS than for the 8th-up audience of the reviews. It read more like an adult book with a teen-aged hero than a YA book with an older protagonist. Smiles is an unexpectedly likable rich kid whose slacker ways help him deal with the reality of being a disappointment to his father, now dying of cancer, and with the reality that his birth mother left him behind 16 years ago and has refused contact with him ever since. Ex-girlfriend and still best friend Melanie is another smart/rich character who has to deal with difficult revelations about her father and his part in the conspiracy that fuels the story. Readers will come out with the understanding that even spoiled rich kids have things in their lives that are difficult to deal with, and with the idea that everyone has to make their own way in the world, despite the gift/curse of wealthy parents. Take that where you will!
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