Secrets of My Suburban Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Over the summer, Ren's mother was killed by J.K. Rowling. No not physically by Rowling, but a pile of Harry Potter books did fall on her mother's head and killed her. If having her mother die isn't enough grief for Ren, her father decides to move her out of her beloved Manhattan to plain old Danbury, Connecticut. It seems life is out to get Ren, because she has no new friends, the evil "it" girl Farrin is out to get her, and it seems that her dad never wants to talk with her anymore. Things start to look up for Ren when she meets Jack, an uber cute boy! Unfortunately Farrin likes to think Jack is hers and that Ren should just stay away. One day when Ren and Farrin's identical notebooks get mixed up Ren finds printouts of chat rooms from a website called Sex World. Even though Ren despises Farrin she can't resist the urge to help her get out of the mess she has put herself into. Ren creates an account on the website and pretends to be Farrin. She's not too scared about meeting this predator until she thinks she's found out who it is. Could it be so obvious? Is it someone close by? Ren sets off on an adventure to save her enemy and find out the true identify of this sick man. Along the way she gains the friendship of two girls and catches Jack's heart. In the end she gets the bad guy, but it will shock us all as to who he is!

This book wasn't my favorite, but in no means was it a bad book. It had mystery and romance in it and kept the reader wondering who the predator was. I enjoyed Ren's character, but to me she was just like a lot of characters in many other books. She didn't have that extra special something that makes me want to be the character. The book's theme seems to be geared more for older readers, but the writing, in my opinion, is geared toward a younger age group. The one thing that did really speak to me though is the fact that a lot of girls go online into chat rooms, like Sex World, and get themselves mixed up with creepy sex offenders. This is a growing problem in today's world and people need to really be made aware of it. If you know anyone who even think might be involved in this type of activity don't hesitate to tell someone because you could be saving a life.