Lola At Last

YA fiction 

     "Tully:  The reason sloppy photos of me making out with someone else's boyfriend live on in an awful corner of the internet.  The reason Meg and Jasmine iced me out and Kat found new friends.  The reason my parents shipped me off to France to 'get some space' from my mistakes."

     Lola, protagonist of JC Peterson's Lola At Last, is back from her European exile and ready to be reunited with her popular crowd.  She's sure everyone has moved on from the incident...

     ...Except nope.  Her best friends, Jasmine and Meg want nothing to do with her.  Her twin sister, Kat, has become a part of the nerd set.  While Tully, the male half of the incident, is still as popular as ever, having suffered no consequences whatsoever.  When she tries to win back the attention and admiration of the crowd Lola shoots off a flare gun, accidentally setting the yacht that is the site of the party 🥳 on fire...

     ...a yacht that has just been purchased by her brother-in-law, Will.  He isn't going to file charges.  But he insists that her actions have consequences.  He's enrolling her in a program, Hike Like A Girl, in which she'll be part of a group developing hiking and backpacking skills.  If she doesn't pull her weight she'll be dropped and Will will be contacted.

     At first the program is as terrible as Lola expects it to be.  But when she begins to put in an effort to show doubters she can handle it she starts feeling pride and finding aspects of hiking and nature she enjoys.  

     And there's a boy in Kat's new set who she may just be falling for.

     As those of who have lived through the teens know, these can be quite turbulent years when one can feel stuck in and defined by a low point.  Lola shows young readers the potential for redemption, for moving on.

On a purrrsonal note, Friday was the fourth anniversary of the death of Joseph Jacob Hathaway ❤️ 💕 ♥️ 💙 💖 💗 aka Joey Cat who was my beloved companion for 16 years.  I focused on my favorite memories and how fortunate I was to have him in my life.  As far as cats go, he was a good cat who left paw 🐾 prints on the ❤️ 💙 💜 💖 💗 of all who loved him.

Jules Hathaway 

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