Never Been Kissed, by Melody Carlson

I enjoy reading teen fiction occasionally, and I had a bit of "extra" time earlier this month (before I jumped back into school), so I thought I'd read the latest from Melody Carlson, Never Been Kissed.

{From the Publisher}:
New School = New Chance for that First Kiss

Summer is ending, and for once that doesn't seem like such a bad thing to Elise. She's hoping that starting fresh at a new high school will turn her first kiss prospects around. New guys, new friends, and a new lease on life.

What she wasn't counting on was all the new pressure - to hang with the right crowd, wear the right clothes, and date the right guy. Just when it seems she's on top of the world, everything comes crashing down. Could one bad choice derail her future?

{My Thoughts}:
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was well written and I enjoyed following the characters through the story, but the subject matter seemed a bit too PG/PG-13 for a junior high/high school girl to be reading. At one point, a comparison is made in the book to a character on a popular TV show that I watch (rated TV-14), but that I would never have been allowed to (or wanted to) watch in high school, let alone in junior high. However, this is the type of book (market-wise) that I would have been reading in junior high.

While I wasn't offend by the material, I'm not sure it is appropriate for teen-age girls to be reading. They get enough garbage thrown at them in secular novels - Christian novels should have a higher standard (in my opinion).

Because of the inappropriate material for this age group, I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, for providing a copy of this book for review.