Nobody's Girl

Title: Nobody's Girl
Author: Sarra Manning
Published: 2010
Genre: Contemporary, Travel, Coming of Age, Family, Romance
Rating: 5 out of 5

Seventeen year old Bea considers herself a very average and boring girl. So when the school's most popular girl Ruby includes Bea in her exclusive group, Bea feels special. But Bea feels her over-protective mother, who had her at seventeen is holding Bea back. So when the chance comes to go on a holiday to Spain with Ruby and the girls, Bea takes the chance to become more confident and cool.
But when she sees the true nature of the girls, Bea escapes and runs away to Paris, in search of her 'phantom father' who Bea knows is French. On her journey, Bea becomes friends with a group of American backpackers, learns how to stand up for herself and find the truth about her father.

OMG, it's been ages since I've read a really good contemp, and Nobody's Girl was perfect. I loved the Brit-speak, the destinations, the plot and the characters. Bea's anger and pain was my anger and pain and her revenge on her 'frenemies' was perfect (it has to be read and admired, I cannot spoil it)! Manning writes in a very real tone and creates very, very relatable, lovable and hateable characters which I'm sure every reader can relate to, love and loath. The only downside would be the French that's used. It's simple French, but if you don't have an idea about the language it would be super frustrating (it is for me when there's Spanish).

I recommend Nobody's Girl to... anyone who enjoys contemporary YA with lots of travel and a very cute romance. Yes. there's swearing and the usual themes that come along with promiscuous teens, but Nobody's Girl is awesome.