FIRST & THEN, by Emma Mills

The story: Devon thought she was getting along just fine: silently crushing on best friend Cas, figuring out how to get along with live-in cousin Foster, dealing with her senior year. But when Foster turns out to be great at kicking, and All-American footballer Ezra Lynley turns out to be almost Mr. Darcy-esque, things start getting a lot more complicated than Devon expected. What would Jane Austen do?

June Cleaver's ratings: Language R; Violence PG; Sexual content PG; Nudity PG; Substance abuse PG-13; GLBT content G; adult themes PG; overall rating PG-13.

Liz's comments: This was a charming story that would have been perfectly suitable for 6th graders except for the appalling, graphic language. I realize that high school kids (at least some of them) DO talk that way, but still. The language added nothing to the story but made it so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone below 8th grade (and only then because I'd already bought it!). I don't understand why the author and editor wouldn't have gone for the broader audience appeal that a bit of search-and-replace would have offered. :P