What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I thought of this book the other day, but I only really remember one scene...

Two teenage girls are best friends. They are interested in or maybe are dating two teenage boys, who are maybe/maybe not best friends.

The scene I remember is that the two couples go to the L.L. Bean retail store late at night. (The point was made that the store was open 24 hours a day.) I think the boy offers to buy the main character a chamois shirt. (He is maybe rich, has more money than the girl.) The girl picks a purple shirt and one of the boys says it's a "jap" color. (At the time, I had never heard the term "Jewish American princess" and I thought the boy was making fun of her for being Japanese, which was really confusing, as there had been no prior indication that she was Asian.)

I think that's all I remember: L.L. Bean late at night (maybe as part of a road trip), a purple chamois shirt, and a derogatory remark about a girl's religion/heritage.

A few books to checkout

Gentlehands
Here's a review from Kirkus. It's long so I hid it behind a spoiler (view spoiler)[n order to impress beautiful, rich Skye Pennington, 16-year-old Buddy, a policeman's son, takes her to visit his grandfather--a cultivated, gentle, widely traveled German, divorced when Buddy's mother was a baby and thus a virtual stranger to both Buddy and his mother (who nevertheless hates her father for a snob). In similar spirit both Buddy's parents are fiercely opposed to his dating Skye, because she is "not of our class" and is giving Buddy "hotsy-totsy," not to say expensive, habits. But Buddy defies them, spending more and more time at the Penningtons, where, as he expounds at the kitchen table, "they have a marble staircase and this butler named Peacock. . . these little dogs called Papillon, which means butterfly in French. . . they go to Europe and all that stuff." They also have DeLucca, a reporter guest who is tracking his Italian-Jewish cousin's Auschwitz murderer, and who embarrasses Skye and her friends with the story when they are telling anti-Semitic jokes. Buddy also spends more and more time at his grandfather's, where he is regaled with mellow wisdom on everything from love and (he'll remember) responsibility to Renaissance art and how to pour wine; and when things get too hot at home he moves in with the older man, now a close and loving friend. Then DeLucca springs. Buddy's grandfather is the wanted Nazi and the papers are full of his atrocities. It can't be true. . . but it is. (hide spoiler)]

People Like Us

Do you remember the tone of the book? Serious, humorous, etc?

Anything about the cover?

Part of a series?

Thanks for the suggestions, Tab.

The book I am looking for is definitely not Gentlehands. In the book I am looking for, it is the boy who has more money than the girl (and the girl who is the main character).

I don't think the book is People Like Us (I don't remember anything about a brother's Bar Mitzvah), but it's kind of difficult to tell with only the brief GoodReads description to go on. I wish there were a cover image for that book!

I don't think the book was part of a series, and I don't remember the cover.

Tone? Typical 80s teenage girl romance novel, told from the perspective of the teenage girl. I don't remember the book being funny at all.

In my recollection, class differences were more problematic to the MC than were religious differences, but I do remember that one part where her Jewishness was brought up.

Bumping in hopes that another reader of 80s teen romance novels remembers this one.

Crazy in Love by Cynthia Blair is another guess.

There is a slightly longer descrip at Sweet Hearts Romance
http://sweetheartsromancebooks.com/cy...

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not Crazy in Love that I am looking for. In the book I am trying to remember, the boyfriend is not Puerto Rican, and I think the MC's Jewish religion/heritage is a minor part of the plot.

However, Cynthia Blair sounds familiar, so I'll check her out. Maybe seeing other books she wrote will ring some kind of bell.

Well, seeing Cynthia Blair's list of books didn't ring any bell whatsoever, but the name is so familiar...Oh well.

Bumping

Double Standard by Elizabeth Levy

Best friends and aspiring rock singers Colette and Abby discover all kinds of problems when they double date on a weekend trip to Maine with Ian and Abernathy, two boys from a Boston prep school.


Excerpt:
Several chamois shirts in different colors were lying on the counter. Abernathy held a navy one next to Abby's face. "I never wear navy," complained Abby. "Don't they have it in purple?" "Purple is a JAP color," said Abernathy.

YES! This is it! I had forgotten that they were aspiring rock starts.

Thank you so much. I will update it as solved and add it to the group's bookshelf.

You're welcome.

I was at the L.L. Bean store not too long ago. Cute town. (Freeport). The whole town has become outlet stores, but not obnoxious/ugly like some outlet areas. It's a very small town feel.