Handle with Care

“Rina! Why am I not surprised to find you here?”

“Excuse me?” Of all the infinite unsaid words out there, this is not what I expected her to say. I fold my arms, trying to decide if I should take offense or not.

She looks at me, her green eyes meeting my own in a flash of understanding.

“I’ve been here long enough to recognize that look on your face. Besides, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something’s going on in your life.”

When confident, popular Rina Meisels moves to Clover Hills, Massachusetts, in the middle of tenth grade, she knows it’s not going to be easy.

School is the last thing on her mind, and she’s perfectly content to divide her time between playing mother to her younger siblings, trips to the hospital, and babysitting her neighbor’s adorable kids.

What she doesn’t expect is to meet so many girls who truly seem to want to get to know her— but Rina isn’t letting her guard down so fast. She is determined to maintain her cool, carefree façade at all costs. Things begin looking up when an unlikely friendship between her and a twelfth grader leads to her landing a huge role in the school production. But it all goes downhill fast, and when things hit rock bottom, Rina has no choice but to discover new reserves of strength inside of her.

In this debut novel by Dassy Aarons, you will be rooting for Rina as she grapples with painful decisions, heartrending questions, startling revelations, and a hefty dose of drama. Can she look past the invisible barriers she so carefully erected and realize how much everyone around her truly cares?