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Reviewed by Lisa McCombs for Readers' Favorite
In To Be Honest by TC Booth, Starla has come to grips with a physical handicap that puts her on guard when meeting new people. Her best friend Ally accepts Star and her classmates refrain from mentioning the circumstances responsible for the disfigurement. Starla knows she is fortunate to have such nonjudgmental friends and is happily enveloped in the cocoon of her small town life. Then the earth shifts when her father is transferred two hours away and she is forced to adapt to a new lifestyle in a more populated area.
The new house is larger, the new school is bigger, and her new classmates are more than curious about her. Fortunately a new friend takes Star under her wing and offers needed comfort. With this new friendship, Starla discovers a class system alien to her old school. With this realization comes jealousy that “the new kid” might actually upstage a previously established understanding of social rankings. While her friendship with Ally remains strong, Starla’s back home boyfriend cannot handle the fact that she is making new friends and developing new crushes.
To Be Honest by TC Booth is a refreshingly realistic story of young love, hurtful teen angst, and poignant sibling devotion. As Starla attempts to maintain her relationships back home, she learns painful lessons about loyalty and long distance romance. Sometimes what appears to be true and what really is are two very separate situations. Reading this story was a journey to the distant time of teenage innocence and hope. I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of this novel.