"THIS IS NOT A SCHOOL MUSICAL, THIS IS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SEEING YOU, RECOGNIZING YOU, CRITICIZING YOU. THIS IS IT. PUBLIC PERSON -- THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. ARE YOU READY?"

When fifteen-year-old Wonder Blake is plucked from her job at the Dairy Queen and given the chance to become a teen idol, it seems like a dream come true -- even if it wasn't her dream, but her older sister Lucky's. Lucky was on her way to becoming a pop star when she died, and Wonder and her family are still trying to recover from their loss. Offered a recording contract, Wonder jumps at the chance to escape from a dead-end town, her fractured family, and worst of all, high school. Suddenly she has it all: a hot new look, a chart-busting hit single, a tour opening up for superstar Kayla. But stardom isn't all glamour -- it's also lots of work. And maybe what Wonder really wants is as simple as a guy who likes her for herself.

With spark and humor Rachel Cohn captures the struggles and glories of an ordinary teenage girl's climb to celebrity. As Wonder rises through the pop-princess star-making machine, she also learns the price -- and that maybe being an ordinary teenage girl isn't so bad after all.

Amazon.com Review
Pop Princess, Rachel Cohn's third novel, will no doubt please some American Idol fans, but it is bound to leave fans of her cutting edge debut, Gingerbread, cold.

Wonder Blake is a fifteen year old frustrated chanteuse, stuck dreaming her pop star dreams in a small sleepy Cape Cod town while mopping the floor of the local Dairy Queen. Enter Gerald Tiggs, or "Tig", as he is known in the biz, the former manager of Wonder’s older sister Lucky, who died tragically in a car accident two years earlier. Tig overhears Wonder wailing away on her Walkman at the DQ, and offers her a record deal on the spot. And the rest, as they say, is pure pop fantasy. Wonder vaults to insta-fame on the strength of her single, the appropriately titled "Bubble Gum Pop." In typical Britney/Christina fashion, she is tempted by drugs and alcohol, dissed by a famous diva, and caught between the boy next door and a mysterious stranger she meets on tour. All the while, Wonder longs for a return to the quiet life she used to have and the wise counsel of her beloved deceased sister.

Sound familiar? It should: Wonder’s story could have been lifted wholesale from just about any episode of VH1’s Behind the Music. What happened to the sly, sarcastic, hipper-than-thou-voice Rachel Cohn penned in her breakout hit Gingerbread? With Pop Princess, Cohn is in danger of losing her individual voice as much as her bubblegum snapping protagonist. Rather than breathing new life into a tired genre, Cohn’s conventional, lighter-than-air read will surprise no teen, and provide about as much escapism as a night in front of the tube with Randy, Paula and Simon.--Jennifer Hubert