Overdrive

Gr 9 Up—Full of action, mistakes, retribution, and some teenage angst, this high-octane novel about stealing cars is a memorable read to race through. Jules has made one big mistake and thanks to her selfish ex-boyfriend has been caught and revealed to be the infamous car thief known only as Ghost. The moniker describes more than Jules's ability to disappear with a hot car without a trace; it epitomizes her struggle to be a person all her own while dealing with having no parents and hopping from foster home to foster home. What truly drives the protagonist, and even her crimes, is the need to keep her and her younger sister, Emma, together. When she's caught, Jules is given one last chance in the form of Roger, an eccentric millionaire willing to take in the siblings, but only if Jules agrees to continue her life of crime for him. She agrees for Emma's sake and teams up with three other teenagers living with Roger to steal some of the rarest cars. As the action unfolds, readers will have little time to catch their breaths before Jules is thrust from one dilemma to another.