When You Wish »

When You Wish is Kristin Harmel’s first novel for teens; she’s also the author of three novels for adults, How to Sleep with a Movie Star, The Blonde Theory, and The Art of French Kissing. She lives in Orlando, Florida.

“A feel-good story . . . we all deserve great reads like this!”—BostonNow.com

Star Beck is super-duper megastar famous. She rocks—literally—every night in concert for thousands of cheering fans. But the pop star life—tour buses, fauxmances, size 0 minis—is getting a little old. Star can’t help wondering what it would be like to be a regular girl—without paparazzi trailing her every move, and without people being nice just because, well, she’s Star Beck. And when she discovers that her mom has been lying to her for years about something very important, Star decides to find out what the world beyond her stage is like after all.

In the blink of an emerald green eye, Star finds herself . . . buying a car. Eating cheeseburgers. Swapping her stilettos for flip-flops. Getting a job that doesn’t require dancing, winking, or mall appearances. And falling for the cutest, realest boy she’s ever met.

Publishers Weekly

Harmel is a reporter for Peoplemagazine-and it shows. In her first novel for teens, she displays her knowledge of pop culture by salting her writing with references to everything from Kelly Clarkson to bling. For readers who crave that sort of thing, her book won't disappoint. Its main character, a 16-year-old pop diva appropriately named Star, has it all-a great body, tons of money, fame and two Grammys to prove it. Never mind that her "relationship" with the equally famous bad-boy Jesse Bishop is staged by their publicists, or that her controlling stage mother has been lying for years about her absentee father. But when a reporter tells Star that her father's in Florida, and looking for her, she travels in disguise to find him. What follows is semientertaining yet predictable. Star experiences what it's like to feel "normal" and how it feels to be with a boy who likes her for herself, not her fame. As Star learns about life beyond the glitz and glamour, Hannah Montanafans will be nodding in recognition. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)

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