Mostly Good Girls »

Leila Sales grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Chicago. Now she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works in the mostly glamorous world of children’s book publishing. Leila spends her time thinking about sleeping, kittens, dance parties, and stories that she wants to write. Mostly Good Girls is her first novel. Learn more at leilasales.com.

The higher you aim, the farther you fall….

It’s Violet’s junior year at the Westfield School. She thought she’d be focusing on getting straight As, editing the lit mag, and figuring out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva. Instead, she’s just trying to hold it together in the face of cutthroat academics, her crush’s new girlfriend, and the sense that things are going irreversibly wrong with her best friend, Katie.

When Katie starts making choices that Violet can’t even begin to fathom, Violet has no idea how to set things right between them. Westfield girls are trained for success—but how can Violet keep her junior year from being one huge, epic failure?

VOYA

Violet and her best friend Katie are juniors at the exclusive, private Westfield School, near Boston. They've been friends since they were both assigned to work on a project together in their first year at Westfield. Violet's plans for the year are pretty basic: get straight As, do well on the PSATs, edit the school's literary magazine, and figure out how to talk to boys. She always thought that Katie's plans were much the same, but Katie is changing. She has a bucket list of "teenage things" to do, and seems to think that sensible Violet should share the experiences with her. Violet goes along with starting up a fake tour for the lower school students (to earn money), and getting drunk (just for the experience), but when her friend starts dating a marijuana-smoking barista, Violet starts to distance herself. In an effort to smooth things over, Violet lets Katie convince her to add a cruel reality-based story to the winter edition of the school magazine. The administration does not take this well, and Violet finds herself bearing the blunt of the responsibility and punishment, while Katie decides to leave the school. This exploration of growing up, personal change and angst is well-written, and will likely be enjoyed more by the Violets than by the Katies. Reviewer: Marlyn Beebe