How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True

Zoe is spending the summer as an intern at a hyper-controlling storybook theme park, a place she used to go with her mother before she died. Instead of being cast as a character, she is assigned to be "lady in waiting" to the Queen, the park's domineering manager. On her very first day, Zoe gets a demerit for picking park flowers, which could cost her the big college scholarship awarded to two star interns. But Zoe is not the only one breaking rules, and she soon realizes that "You could not pit a bunch of ambitious, talented, extremely theatrical rising high school seniors against one another with twenty-five thousand dollars at stake and not expect blood to be shed." Readers may have a hard time following the over-the-top scandals that unfold, but Strohmeyer's (Smart Girls Get What They Want) humorous details about the park itself (royal characters get better quarters than "Ordinary Cast Members," and princes are given exclusive access to a pheromone-rich cologne) provide a lively, unconventional backdrop as Zoe's emotional wounds slowly begin to heal. Ages 13%E2%80%93up. Agent: Heather Schroder, ICM. (May)