I started reading this because I thought it would be a suspenseful story of teens planning and carrying out a heist. It is that, but it is much more a tale of friends on the verge of heading off to college and ultimately going their separate ways; Each one has their own motives for risking everything to help a friend secure the money to go to MIT.Bellamy has never met her father. He has lead a life acquiring great wealth and another family. Bellamy and her mother scrape by. When his fortune is figured into her financial aid application, Bellamy can't even get a loan. And she sure can't ask her father for money. So what is Bellamy to do?
In steps her best friend Nari, a total computer genius, who has an idea about skimming money from Bellamy's father's numerous accounts a little at a time. To pull it off, they need their other friends: Reese (artist extraordinaire), Santiago (future Olympic diver, he hopes) and Keagan (Nari's boyfriend).
What I like most about this book is how the characters are written. They are not teen stereotypes. We know their motivations and complexities. We also see them disagree about the illegal act they are planning. Keagan doesn't like it. Even though he goes along, his reservations never go away completely. The five teens have unique relationships with every other person in the group. They argue; they support each other; they rely on one another.
Even though, this story was not the intense caper I was hoping, I enjoyed it for the strong teen characters.
For more info, check out the Indianapolis Public Library catalog and the author's site.
