Oh Yeah, Audrey!

Shaw, Tucker. Oh Yeah, Audrey.
October 14th 2014 by Amulet Books
E ARC from Netgalley.com

Grieving for her mother, teenager Gemma runs away from home to spend the weekend in New York City, meeting members of an Audrey Hepburn fan club and recreating scenes from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's before going to a movie screening. Bryan is a wealthy boy from Bel Air, and Trina, a girl who has followed Gemma on her Tumblr blog, meet up and plan their trip. When the group meet up with the ultra rich Dusty at an auction of Hepburn's wardrobe, Gemma is swept off her feet by him, and abandons her ex friends and takes off with Dusty, who has purchased the black Givenchy feathered fringed dress for Gemma to wear. the two make the rounds of New York's underground social scene, and even while Gemma feels bad about leaving her new friends, she feels more like Audrey's holly Golightley than she has ever felt. in hue he need, though, she learns an important message- the beginning of the movie isn't glamorous, it's sad and lonely, and Gemma realizes that she needs to make her peace with her father and move on from grieving for her mother.
Strengths: I adore Shaw's Flavor of the Week, and keep waiting for him to write more romance with boys as more central characters. He writes very readable and engaging prose with a strong sense of place, and the life lessons learned in this are poignant and real. I enjoyed it a lot. A great purchase for public or high school libraries. I need to watch the movie again!
Weaknesses: I have absolutely no audience for this in the middle school. The romance with Dusty stops short of being inappropriate, but the whole premise of being enamored of Breakfast at Tiffany's will have my students shaking their heads.