Vegan virgin Valentine

"Warmth and humor suffuse the story of Mara's senior-year transformation from tense, rigid perfectionist to relaxed, centered graduate. . . . Funny and optimistic." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS

Mara Valentine is in control. She's a straight-A senior, a vegan, and her parents' pride and joy. She's neck-and-neck with her womanizing ex-boyfriend for number-one class ranking and plans to kick his salutatorian butt on her way out the door to Yale. Mara has her remaining months in Brockport all planned out, but the plan does not include having V, her slutty, pot-smoking, sixteen-year-old niece - yes, niece - come to live with her family. Nor does it involve lusting after her boss or dreaming about grilled cheese sandwiches every night. What does a control freak like Mara do when things start spinning wildly out of control? With insight, authenticity, and a healthy dose of humor, Carolyn Mackler creates an evolving Type A heroine that every reader will recognize - and root for.

My mom must have read my mind. "No vegan options?" I nodded. "It's so annoying." "Do you ever think about not eating vegan?" I shook my head. "I don't think I'll ever eat meat again. Eggs still gross me out, too." "So you think about dairy?" "Cheese," I said. "I think about cheese sometimes." Talk about understatements! I CRAVE cheese. I LUST after cheese. I DREAM about cheese. "You know, Mara," my mom said, "sometimes we make decisions about our life and they feel like the right decision at the time. No, they are the right decision at the time. But that doesn't mean they'll be the right decision forever. And you know what I've realized as I've gotten older? There isn't a definite right and wrong anyway. Sometimes we do what seems wrong, but we have good reasons for doing it, so it's not wrong after all." I think she was referring to the whole vegan thing, but as she spoke, something else was flooding my brain. No, not something. Someone. Someone with a chestnut ponytail and an easy smile and a hole in the thigh of his faded jeans. Someone who would not leave my thoughts no matter how many times I tried to evict him. ______ VEGAN VIRGIN VALENTINE by Carolyn Mackler. Copyright (c) 2006 by Carolyn Mackler. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA. Excerpted from Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.