The Crush Dilemma (Dear Aubrey, #1) by Susan Hatler

Teen geek, Poppy Pinkleton, is adding some spice to her senior year of high school: A year of psychological experiments that will 1) Earn her three units of college credit; 2) Give her an outlet to say what she wants, when she wants; and 3) Will NOT include her parents telling her to be the “bigger person.”

How, you ask? Poppy’s gotten the green light from Mrs. Peterson, the newspaper head, to write an online advice column for the school. She’s found the perfect name for her alter ego: Aubrey. It means someone who rules with “magical wisdom.” She’ll be in control of her online experiment, online identity, and divvy her wisdom to the masses while tracking the results for her mini-thesis.
Now, protected by a secret identity, she’s got the popular crowd clambering to know what she thinks about fashion, homework, and eek . . . even sex! And the best part is, her parents and best friends don’t know anything about it. Finally, she can let loose a wild side and speak her mind—right or wrong, without having to meet anyone’s expectations.

Soon, however, dishing out advice leads to more than Poppy can handle on her own and she must make a choice. Hide behind her alter ego or take the chance that everyone, including the new boy at school, will like her for everything she is.

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Here goes Susan Hatler again- changing up her genre a bit and writing a fun YA book.  I love Susan's adult clean romance books.  They always make me swoon dreamily.  This book is written for a younger audience and isn't necessarily swoony but has so many things that teenagers in high school will be able to relate to easily.

Poppy.  Here's a girl that is focused on grades and college.  She isn't in the "it" crowd, but usually she doesn't mind that so much.  When Poppy has the great idea of writing an anonymous advice column for her school she feels on top of the world.  People are paying attention to what she says and putting her advice into practice.  But then things start getting a bit messy.  Poppy is caught up in the drama of relationships, secrets and heavy expectations.  Yeah, things get messy alright!

I liked Poppy.  She is book smart but not exactly always people smart.  Her advice column was a way for her to express what she thought because in her real life she wasn't nearly as courageous.  I loved watching Poppy grow in confidence as her secret life and thoughts started to mesh with her real life and she learned how to speak up.

This book was easy to settle in with and made me smile many times.  It also tugged a bit at my heartstrings.  This life can be so hard to navigate.  People can be mean.  It takes courage to stand up and let your voice be heard.  It takes courage to stand against the mean people and the bullies.  It is so important to surround yourself with good people and good friends and to be that for other people.  That's the message I took away from this book.  

Content:  Some talk of teenagers "hooking up" and cheating on each other, teenage drinking.  Nothing described in detail.

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.