One of the better volumes in the series: Alice struggles to decide who the real Alice McKinley is. Is she doing things to satisfy other people's expectations of who she is... or to change other people's ideas of who she is, instead of just being herself. Alice begins to get involved with a senior boy who seems to have only one thing on his mind. Alice goes further in her sexual exploration than she has in the past, though she holds on to her virginity (barely) for now. After spending nearly all of the middle school volumes longing for her father to marry Miss Summers, now that they are married, Alice is having a great deal of difficulty sharing her home and father with the new woman. There are also a handful of delightful laugh out loud episodes. ( )

An enjoyable and interesting read, although the book-censoring crowd, which already has a vendetta against this series, will be even more horrified.

This is one of the few Young Adult series that I continue to read! Alice has problems that everyone can relate to you! You feel her pain and embarrassment. You cringe with her, laugh with her and cry with her.
In this installment of the series, Alice decides she doesn't want to be boring or a goodie two shoes anymore and she does everything in her power to get rid of that title. She rides on the back of a motorcycle during school hours, does things she never imagined with a boy and then something happens that has the potential to be tragic! It was a great read! ( )

Still appealing after 20-odd books, Alice's journey into womanhood continues to ring true for me. ( )

There are so many things in this series that ring true--namely, the focus on sex (discussion of, speculation on, and who's having) in the recent books--but there's just as much that never really feels genuine, like how excited the whole school gets over school dances. As with all the recent Alice titles, this one covers a lot of ground--dating the Bad Boy to shed the good-girl image, drunk driving, Issues with stepparents, friend with leukemia, and Boys and Boys and Boys. For all the Problem Novel areas it covers, it's remarkably non-preachy. This entry into the series isn't bad, as the Alice books go, but that doesn't mean it's a great book. ( )