Something Borrowed
by Catherine Hapka

    SOMETHING BORROWED by Catherine Hapka
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  4/8/08
    Publisher:  Simon Pulse
    Reviewed by:  Jaglvr
    Rating:  4 Stars


    Ava Hamilton has a front row ticket to the wedding of the season…that of Camille, her sister. Everything at home is
    in total chaos because of the event. Her sister is making her wear the Pink Horror. Pink is so not Ava’s color, and
    the dress is hideous. To top it off, her boyfriend, Lance, has just broken up with her, by phone!

    Ava is fit to be tied and complains to her best friend, Teresa. Teresa tells Ava that there’s nothing wrong with going
    stag to the wedding. But Ava refuses to have everyone look at her with pity, thinking she can’t get a date to her own
    sister’s wedding.

    So, Ava begins a quest with two weeks to go before the wedding. She has Teresa take her to the University of
    Pennsylvania’s campus. There, Ava meets Zoom and they hit it off. He agrees to go with her to the wedding, but has
    to cancel after a freak BMX accident.

    Next, Ava is convinced by Teresa’s boyfriend, Jason, to ask out Oliver, the lead singer of the Manyunk Mucus, a
    local up-and-coming band. Much to Ava’s surprise, Oliver agrees to go out with her, and then to accompany her to
    the wedding. After another freak incident, this one involving Ava’s naked mom in the pool house, Oliver is long gone.

    Such is the luck of Ava over the next two weeks. Finally, the night before her best friend is due to leave for a month-
    long internship in Germany, Ava asks Teresa if she can “borrow” her boyfriend. Ava’s not a fan of Jason, but he’s
    attractive, and has been a huge help with running errands for Camille’s wedding. Ava doesn’t realize, though, that
    maybe the reason she wasn’t a fan of Jason was because secretly she was attracted to him.

    Reading Ava’s misadventures in dating over the two-week span is enough to make anyone thankful that it’s not
    happening to them! Ms. Hapka writes an amusing story of the trials of one girl trying to get one date to a wedding
    she’d rather not have to attend!