Pretty Girl County
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
"Irresistibly fun and authentic, Pretty Girl County is a luminous showcase of community, friendship, love in all its complexities, and the ways we blaze our own paths. A sparkling, must-read delight!"—Julian Winters, award-winning author of Right Where I Left You
The glitz of Gossip Girl meets the hustle of Leah Johnson's You Should See Me in a Crown in this charming and hilarious story of ex-BFFs from PG County, Maryland, perfect for fans of Joya Goffney and Elise Bryant.
Girls like Reya Samuels always come from Prince George’s County. Reya is rich and she’s not afraid to show it—she wears designer clothes, drives a custom pink Audi, and lives in a neighborhood tucked behind a fancy cast iron gate. She works hard, but she can get anything she wants with a snap.
Sommer Watkins is from Seat Pleasant, where the cast iron gates are significantly smaller—and attached to the windows, where most folks are still trying to make ends meet. Every day for Sommer is a hustle, working at her dad’s bookstore, and using her art skills to scrounge up enough scholarship money for her dream school, Spelman.
Reya and Sommer used to be BFFs—back when Reya lived in Seat Pleasant, too. Now the girls are from different stratospheres—but when Reya desperately needs help to prove to FIT admissions officers that she has what it takes to make it in fashion, the only person who can help is Sommer. Reya promises to help Sommer in return—she’ll pay her for her services, helping Sommer afford the school her parents can’t.
As the girls work together, slowly they begin to trust each other again. But when new relationships push them both, and Sommer’s dad’s bookstore is suddenly in danger of closing, old wounds bubble up. Can the girls find a way to repair their friendship and stay true to themselves along the way?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former friends must navigate class dynamics and economic divides to help each other accomplish their goals in this knockout novel by Wilson (Last Chance Dance). Reya Samuels and Sommer Watkins were BFFs until Reya's mother came into money and moved the Samuels family from Seat Pleasant, Md., to a more affluent Prince George's County neighborhood. Now 18, the girls haven't spoken in five years despite attending the same school. Sommer assists her father at his bookstore and works to save for college while Reya packs her schedule with extracurricular activities, hoping to impress administrators at the Fashion Institute of Technology into accepting her off the admission waiting list. When Reya struggles to put together a school fashion show, she recruits Sommer to design the clothes. In exchange, Reya offers to pay Sommer and help at the bookstore. Their partnership forces them to confront past hurts and feelings of abandonment; meanwhile, romance blossoms in the background for both girls. Using Reya's and Sommer's lively alternating POVs, Wilson highlights topics of financial inequity, privilege, and community and their effects on the girls and their relationships in a powerful tale of first love and second-chance friendship. Main characters are Black. Ages 12–up.
