In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. Readers will find much cynicism but also humor and insight into a corrupt system not necessarily confined to the rich.Ĭlever and constantly interesting, this is as much a winner as Gabby. (Fiction. Stampler paints a ruthless portrait of wealthy Los Angeles, but she finds the occasional human being there too. When an actual friend finally proves the truth to her, she still feels trapped in a system that rewards only the power of money. Whatever Billy wants, Gabby willingly does, as she shrewdly trims her behavior according to her finely tuned instincts that keep him involved with her. Gabby’s only concern is saving her relationship with Billy, her richer-than-rich boyfriend, against the wishes of his aggressive lawyer mother. It seems, judging by the keys found in her hand, that she stole her boyfriend’s BMW and crashed it into a tree. The story begins with Gabby in the hospital, recovering from a car accident she can’t remember. Gabby has learned survival skills growing up among the super-wealthy. The relentlessly wry and sarcastic tone of this first-person yarn instantly grabs readers’ interest and propels the story forward. A poor little not-quite-so-rich girl tries to keep her privileged boyfriend after a car accident that can get them both into serious legal trouble in this acerbic take on the phoniness of Bel Air, Brentwood and Beverly Hills.

Where it began by ann redisch stampler