10

yesss i finnished the book. A lot happened in the last 165 pages or how ever many it was. Amal has finally made friends with her next door neighbor crabby greek lady. I used to have a crabby lady next door so I could relate. Amal never liked her and finally got to know her better. She learned a lot about the old lady and visits her often. Adam had a birthday party (typical one with drinking and everything) and he invited Amal. He was searching for her all night and when he finally met up with her he finally showed his feelings and tried to kiss her. It's against Amal's religion to have intimte relations before marrage. Which I think is really stupid...she can't even kiss someone unless he's her future husband. She's sixteen for God's sake. I mean ALLAH's sake. K bad Muslim joke. Anyways, after she rejected him it was awkard and he didn't really understand her religion and no longer wanted to like he did before. Which pissed me off. But they became friends again, just not as close. Leila had her seventeenth birthday and Amal and Yasmeen take her out for a surprise dinner. Leila's brother and his girlfriend spot them there and she gets in huge trouble and Amal freaks out and gets really mad at Leila's brother "Sam" that he's out smoking and drinking and with sluts while Leila's mother is only focusing on her intellegent daughter whom she wants married ASAP. Leila ran away and her mother finally realized that she's her only daughter and she shouldn't be so hard on her. Ya think? Another event was when Amal, Eileen, and Simone ditched school and went to the beach and around town. Luckily Mr. Pearce didn't put them to too much punishment and he decited not to tell Amal's parents. Him and all of the other teachers keep noticing the discrimination towards Amal because of her being Muslim and he wants her to see the counselor and stuff. Amal pretty much one the debate for her team and that was pretty exciting. She showed everyone that she could do it and ignored her outer appearance, which felt good to her. In the end Simone and Josh become a couple, Leila's mom is better, and Amal feels true to herself. Overall it was a pretty good book and I would suggest it to most girls.