Secrets of a South Beach Princess

Hollywood Nights #1

by Mary Kennedy

Summer plans go awry when beautiful, blond Amber Fielding, a high school senior-to-be who lives in the penthouse of her father's exclusive South Beach hotel, meets gorgeous film student Nick Crawford.

Genres: Young Adult

245 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2006

About the author

Mary Kennedy is a national best-selling novelist and a licensed psychologist on the east coast. She has written 37 young adult novels and has a new adult mystery series with Penguin, The Talk Radio Mysteries.The first title, DEATH IS BAD KARMA was released in January 2010, and the second release, REEL MURDER, is available now. She has spoken at over 100 schools, libraries and writers' conferences all over the country. She received a grant and award for "artistic excellence in fiction" from the Delaware Division of the Arts. Please visit her online at http://www.marykennedy.net. And be sure to visit Killer Characters--it's a fun site where cozy mystery writers blog as their characters! www.killercharacters.com

Reviews

[Mary Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stand-alone young adult novel I wrote for Penguin. It's set in south Florida, one of my favorite places and I've gotten a very good response to it. It has some of the glitz and glamor of South Beach (the trendy part of Miami) and believable characters.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

Amber Fielding is a very rich girl who lives in South Beach, Florida. Her father owns the hotel The Fielding, which is a very elite hotel in South Beach. She and her family live on the very top floor of the hotel and Amber has the life that she wants. She also has three very good friends that reminded me, in some ways, of the relationship between friends in the SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS.

One day, she is hanging out at the hotel pool and she meets Nick Crawford. She really begins to like him but then he does something awful to her. (You will have to read the book to find out exactly what, though!)

SECRETS OF A SOUTH BEACH PRINCESS moves kind of fast because there aren't always a lot of details, but then there are some parts of the book that feel as if they could have been cut out. Overall, it has a very good storyline and a great, entertaining idea behind it.

I would only recommend this book to mature teens, however, because there are some alcohol references, inappropriate scenes for younger readers, and one of the characters has an eating disorder.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amber Fielding lives in South Beach, she’s rich, young and her family owns the legendary Fieldings Hotel. She meets good looking Nick Crawford whose mother lives at the hotel. Nick’s life is a very different world from Ambers. Nick tells Amber he is filming parts of South Beach for a documentary.
Is he telling the truth or selling her out to the tabloids for money? Worse part is Amber really likes Nick, but can he be trusted!?
A wonderfully written story by Mary Kennedy that really captures the feel and goings on in South Beach Florida.

[S Miller]

Used - Good (Light spine creasing; Some signs of light wear)