While living on the same block as several members of the Mafia does have the advantage of a lower crime rate, fourteen-year-old April and her brother find there are times when it is also a major disadvantage.
Well, after having overdosed on fantasy and angry foster children stories lately, it was refreshing to something totally different. April is at a pretty good time in her life now, though she doesn't always recognize it. Her parents think she's a bit of an oddball since she doesn't like to join in a lot of group activities and prefers to read some rather dark books, like Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. She's got a crush on a "bad boy" too--that would be Dominick, a guitar player. At first, Dominick doesn't even know she's alive but she manages to get his attention. She also attracts the attention of Bert, a boy from another school that she goes on a blind date with mostly as a favor to her best friend. Her older brother's best friend, Little Joe, is also looking at her in a new and different way. But it's not just romance that's coming her way. A tennis coach spots her playing at the park and recruits her for his team, and her English teacher is so impressed with a short story she wrote that he wants her to enter a city-wide writing contest.
On the other hand, big brother Matt has fallen hard for Bettina. They're playing the leads in the high school production of Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately for Matt, Bettina is the daughter of a Mafia crime boss who doesn't approve of Bettina's choice of boyfriend.
This book was a lot of fun to read, but I wonder at the 1970s setting. I grew up in the 70s, so there was plenty of familiar nostalgia going on with me while I read it, but will you guys enjoy it? Did "That 70s Show" create (or tap into) a nostalgia for this decade? Or do you blip over the references to music, fashion, trends, etc. and just enjoy the story and the characters?
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