Book Review: "TTFN"

The second of Lauren Myracle's Internet Girls series, TTFN (or "ta ta for now" for anyone not in the know) follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessor, TTYL. To date, there's only one more book in the trilogy series (and likely, probably won't be more than that). It's still written in the same quirky instant messenger style, which, by the time you've gotten around to reading this book, doesn't seem all that strange to see on paper anymore.

Now, unlike the previous book, this one seems more realistic. It deals with more typical, real life problems that teenagers have, rather than ridiculous, contrived drama that sounds like it's straight out of a Disney Channel teen drama (and by "teen drama", I surely jest and mean Hannah Montana). The girls have just started their junior year of high school, and things are more or less picking up right where they left off in the first book (except a year ahead, but they quickly bring you up to speed in anything that happened in the timeframe between the two books). But, all is not well in paradise, for seemingly as soon as the girls start to feel a little too complacent and normal in their everyday lives, their worlds get turned upside down. Things begin to change and feel weird, and then Angela's father springs it on her that he's being relocated to California for his job and that he's taking the family with him. How will the Winsome Threesome get by without their core member? Not very well, evidently.

It doesn't take long for the natural shift of events to happen after Angela moves. Angela's thrown into a new school that she absolutely hates, and is more or less trailed around by this creepily immature girl Glendy who follows her around like a little lost puppy. Zoe starts growing interested in the boy that practically stalked Angela all of the prior year, even though she couldn't have so much have acknowledged his existence at the time. Things start to get hot and heavy pretty quick for them, and Angela finds out. Jealousy and tempers arise, and drama ensues. (I'm trying not to give too much away here...) Her good girl image is quickly shedding away. Meanwhile, Maddie has gotten involved with an entirely new crowd of kids (anyone remember the Jana drama of the last book?) and gets into trouble of her own, quickly becoming a stoner girl. What will happen? You'll have to read to find out! The book does have a surprise twist ending, which may or may not be all that realistic, but it was still cute. It also still has quirky internet jargon thrown in there that even made me have to do a doubletake (who knew that "Googlewhack" was a real thing? I have to admit, I even did go and try playing it a few times while still reading the book...), and toned down on the over-done, superfluous internet quizzes (THANK GOD).

Ultimately, I enjoyed this book considerably more than the last one. This one makes the girls feel FAR more like real people, rather than cookie cutter, teenager stereotypes. Sure, the angry mothers-who-protest-everything groups will probably still get their panties in a bunch over controversial material in this one, but it doesn't feel as far fetched in this book and like they're really just reaching for shock value and trying to pull in teens' interest by being 'edgy' or whatnot. This more accurately portrays the type of drama real life teenagers face in their lives, and I give it 2 big thumbs up for that. I'm going to go ahead and rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars.