Things I Should Have Known

Gr 7 Up—LaZebnik's latest novel, following Epic Fail, takes the meddling matchmaker trope and gives it a charming modern-day twist. Chloe Mitchell's life isn't perfect, but it sure looks like it is from a distance: she's popular and beautiful, and she's got a gorgeous boyfriend wrapped around her finger. At home, things are much messier. When she decides that her older sister, Ivy, who is on the autism spectrum, might be feeling romantic urges, Chloe decides to take up the challenge of finding Ivy's soul mate. If only her reviled classmate David Fields weren't inserting himself into Chloe's life. Like Jane Austen's classic character Emma Woodhouse, Chloe is inclined to act first and ask questions later, and the chain of events unleashed by her actions end up in a disaster that exposes truths about her sister and Chloe herself. Although the Los Angeles setting occasionally seems generic, the adult characters could have used some fleshing out, and some plot twists aren't as surprising as one might desire, the dialogue has a snappy, realistic quality that will keep readers engaged. Best of all, Chloe and her sister are so authentically portrayed, they nearly leap off the page.