Being Sam, No Matter What

by Marta Tandori

Only three weeks into the seventh grade, Samantha Pacepa’s life is turned upside down when her teacher, Miss Valentina—a.k.a. The Greek Goddess—announces that their class is going on a three-day excursion to New York City. Being an immigrant’s kid from Romania has always meant living with lots of rules, including no overnight school trips. ANYWHERE. But when the most sacred of all the Pacepa Cardinal Commandments is broken—The Family Sticks Together, No Matter What—home life totally breaks down, forcing Sam to question where her loyalties lie. Does she join forces with Nick, her older brother, by making a stand and walking out on the family, or does she take her parents’ side? After all, weren’t they suffering too? Suddenly, not being able to go on a trip to New York isn’t all that important anymore….

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2005

About the author

Marta Tandori had always been an avid reader but it wasn’t until she began studying acting in her early twenties at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York that she realized acting wasn’t really her passion – writing fiction was. Thanks to an overly zealous addiction in her youth to all things Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, Marta fell in love with mysteries and it’s hardly a surprise that she chose to write in the same genre! Marta’s books feature strong female protagonists who have closets full of nasty skeletons and the odd murder or two to complicate their already complex lives. She’s the author of the Kate Stanton Hollywood Mystery Series as well as several other standalone mysteries. To learn more about Marta, please visit her website at http://martatandori.com or her Facebook Author Page at www.facebook.com/MartaTandoriAuthor or connect with her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MartaTandori (@MartaTandori).