Teenreads.com -- SHE’S SO MONEY by Cherry Cheva

SHE’S SO MONEY
Cherry Cheva
HarperTeen
Fiction
ISBN: 9780061288555
304 pages

High school senior Maya is a good girl. She works in her family’s Thai restaurant after school every day and on weekends. She takes several AP courses, tutors and prays daily that she gets her acceptance to Stanford. She knows she’s a straight arrow, and she likes it that way.

Things begin to change, however, when she is asked to tutor Camden King, a popular hottie and super-obnoxious wealthy senior. Their first meeting does not go well, as he leaves after a cell phone call and she throws away the backpack he forgot to take with him. He even offered her lots of cash to do his homework!

One weekend Maya’s parents leave her and her brother in charge of the restaurant while they go to a wedding. Finally she is treated like the adult she knows she is. But she loses her cool when she encounters a set of miserable customers. They leave among threats, and she and her brother are too tired and crabby to clean up properly, vowing to do it the next day. The patrons follow through on their threats, and the Health Inspector leaves notice of violations and fines for Maya totaling $10,000! She is given only three weeks to pay the full amount.

Maya knows her family doesn’t have that kind of money, so she takes Camden up on his potentially lucrative offer. He also has her do homework for a few friends, but not too well, so teachers won’t be suspicious. She doesn’t need sleep, right? Between spending time at the restaurant and doing her and others’ homework, Maya is reaching the end of her rope.

Then Camden kisses Maya! It’s her first, and now she’s really confused. She won’t make her deadline, so he proposes that she line up more tutors to join in and they will take a cut. Maya almost makes it, but of course someone figures out what’s going on and threatens her. She needs more money, so they pull in students from another school. She thinks she’s Camden’s girlfriend now, but when she sees him with other girls, doubts creep in. In fact, Maya isn’t sure of anything anymore.

Cherry Cheva, a writer for “Family Guy,” brings readers a cast of realistic characters who make a few bad choices that spiral out of control. While the magnitude of this cheating operation seems crazy, it’s easy to see how nice girl Maya gets sucked in. SHE’S SO MONEY will have readers turning pages quickly to find out what happens next and if Maya will be able to pull herself out of this mess.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

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