Just Like That

After two teens die riding an ATV across a frozen lake, 18-year-old narrator Hanna Martin, the last person to see them alive, becomes obsessed with not having warned them about the thin ice. Hanna connects with another bystander\x97Will Walker, the jogger who found the girl\x92s body, and their first date ends in bed. Unfortunately, it turns out Will is just 14, not only \x93jailbait,\x94 but the son of a Congressman and the brother of a rock star notorious for a car wreck that killed the rest of her band. Worse still, Hanna shares her secrets with her friends, who betray her in different ways. The cluttered plot (which includes Hanna\x92s search for her long-lost grandmother and for the Congressman\x92s biological mother) introduces the idea that life can end \x93just like that\x94\x97but the author doesn\x92t pursue it. The title of Qualey\x92s (Thin Ice) novel and the multiple incidents of sudden death set up an expectation that the book will explore mortality\x97which is not delivered. Nonetheless, the author creates another companionable narrator in Hanna, an artist whose part-time job as a swimwear salesgirl in frosty Minneapolis provides welcome comic relief\x97and Will is pretty dreamy. Readers rooting for the two to get together despite the age difference get a hopeful ending. Girls who\x92ve read everything by Sarah Dessen may well enjoy this, too. Ages 12-up. (May)