Burnouts, Geeks & Jesus Freaks

Carrie Gould belongs to a crowd of burnouts. Her friends are short on parents, money and plans for the future, but they have each other and a lot of fun, and with chaos waiting at home, Carrie relies on them to stay steady.

To keep her place in that circle, she keeps dating the guy who owns the party house. That would be easy enough if she had not fallen for someone else, a boy her friends would write off as a geek.

Ben Gorman is her neighbor. He is obsessive, smart and strong-willed, and he is on the fast track to becoming an Army Ranger. He also has a girlfriend. Joelle Welker calls herself a Jesus freak, and she is devoted to her faith and to building a future with Ben. Her plans do not leave room for Carrie, or for how much Ben cares about her.

The book is a young adult story built around a love triangle, with three social groups pulling against each other: the burnouts, the geeks and the devout. Carrie and Ben's friendship begins by chance and grows on trust. The tone mixes humor with the strain of a troubled home, and the question driving it is which loyalties Carrie and Ben can keep once their feelings are in the open.