Okay, so what’s the worst thing that could come along to ruin your summer vacation? Duh, homework – a school project on the opposite sex, no less, which is a serious problem if (a) you have no boyfriend, and (b) your chances of getting one before school starts, even if only for research purposes, are zero, nada, zilch. Hannah O’Brian, still saddled with the horrible baby nickname Beaner even though she is thisclose to sixteen, is in serious agony. Plus, she has to wear a poufy mint green dress in her sister’s wedding, where she is sure she will be the Ugly O’Brian Girl next to her beautiful sister Molly – Molly, who has had no trouble finding a very hot and hunky guy, just to twist the knife a little deeper.

Beaner’s problem isn’t so much that guys find her repulsive, it’s that they like her, like a friend. They tell her about the cool movies they took other girls to see and ask if she thinks her friends might be interested in them. Beaner thinks she is the last person on earth qualified to write a guidebook on guys, but the project is due in less than a month, she is desperate, and so she gives it a try. After all, maybe she’ll be able to learn something useful about finding and catching guys, hopefully something so useful it will work for her.

Her ace up the sleeve, if she has one, is her dad, who produces a video request show and could, if he were just the world’s greatest dad, introduce her to a number of certifiably hot guys who also happen to be rock stars. Including (Please, Dad, I will never ask for anything else in my life) any and all members of S.W.A.K, only the hottest boy band in the universe, who are scheduled to appear on his show soon. If she could meet one of those guys (But Dad, this is for school! You want me to get good grades, don’t you?), she would really have something to write about!

Now, any reader of Chick-Lit will know that the only thing more stressful than having no boyfriend is having to go to a wedding, any wedding. Hannah is no different, from the horrors of having to wear the fluffy dress to the bridal jitters that have turned Molly into a raving wicked witch. While I never really got what had set Molly off, the reverberations through both families were quite entertaining. Hannah may be a bit flighty and, by her own admission, inclined to ignore problems and hope they go away, but she does come to some very adult realizations as she tries to find her way through the mess. And unlike many Chick-Lit heroines, Hannah actually takes decisive steps to make things better.

It’s hard to say much about this book without spoiling it, because it’s so short. Hannah and her friends are funny and sympathetic, even if they get away with things that would have gotten me absolutely murdered as a teenager. Molly’s psychotic freak-out opens up the adult world to Hannah in a new way, and kick-starts some major growing up, particularly with regard to one guy in particular. The retired R&B singer Hannah turns to for advice on her guidebook adds a poignant, romantic touch. Among all the characters, only Hannah’s friends come close to being generic, but they’re still so funny (sometimes unintentionally) as they teeter on the dividing line between teenage cool and youthful excitement.

As is typical of Chick-Lit, the absurdities pile up at some points, to Hannah’s embarrassment; most teenagers think their families are freak shows at some point, though, and her trials are not so extraordinary they become ludicrous. On the other hand, I couldn’t believe any fifteen-year-old girl would put up with being called “Beaner” by anyone under the age of ninety. For some reason that awful nickname bothered me more than some other, crazier, things. But even so, this book is definitely worth a read, if only for the fact that it explores the possibility of involuntary tonguectomy as a consequence of French kissing. Which is a very good warning to include in the guidebook.