From the coauthor of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist comes “a slick and enjoyably glitzy read” ( BCCB ) that captures the struggles and glories of an ordinary teenage girl’s climb to celebrity. When fifteen-year-old Wonder Blake is plucked from her job at the Dairy Queen and given the chance to become a teen idol, it seems like a dream come true—even if it wasn’t her dream, but her older sister Lucky’s. Lucky was on her way to becoming a pop star when she died, and Wonder and her family are still trying to recover from their loss. Offered a recording contract, Wonder jumps at the chance to escape from a dead-end town, her fractured family, and worst of all, high school. Suddenly she has it all: a hot new look, a chart-busting hit single, a tour opening up for superstar Kayla. But stardom isn’t all glamour—it’s also lots of work. And maybe what Wonder really wants is as simple as a guy who likes her for herself. As Wonder rises through the pop-princess star-making machine, she also learns that there’s a price for fame—and that maybe being an ordinary teenage girl isn’t so bad after all. "Pop Princess will be popular longer than a Billboard hit." ― Teenreads.com "Addictive." ― M magazine "An exhilarating ride through the pop music industry." ― Romantic Times "Funny and touching." ― J-14 "This is sure to be a a popular choice among YA readers, and it is thoughtful and intelligent as well." ― KLIATT "[A] snappy read that will be devoured with relish by YAs who love to hate the prefab perkiness of mainstream entertainment." ― Booklist "[A] slick and enjoyably glitzy read." ― BCCB "[W]ill attract readers with its details about the pop world." ― Kirkus Reviews "[S]ure to be a winner." ― School Library Journal "Hilarious yet cautionary" ― VOYA Rachel Cohn is the bestselling author of You Know Where to Find Me, Gingerbread, Shrimp, Cupcake, Pop Princess , and, with David Levithan, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist , Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List , and Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares as well as the tween novels The Steps and Two Steps Forward . Born in Washington, DC, she graduated from Barnard College in New York and has lived on both coasts. She lives in Los Angeles. Visit her at RachelCohn.com. Pop Princess One My life as a pop princess began at the Dairy Queen. I could tell you that at the time, I was your average fifteen-year-old girl with slacker grades, dysfunctional family, bad hair days, and a love for singing out loud to every pop song on the radio. But that was the Wonder Blake who appeared doomed to live out her junior year as a social oddity at her new high school on Cape Cod. The other Wonder Blake, the one who slaved away at the DQ every afternoon, she sang aloud to every song on the radio in order to drown out customers’ voices so her mind could focus on her real ambition: escape. Sing-aloud Wonder dreamed of escape from Cape Cod, escape from high school, escape to Somewhere, Anywhere (okay, preferably New York or L.A., though London or Paris would probably do, as would any dark steamy Latin American beach metropolis like in the telenovelas on the Spanish language channel). She also longed for escape from parents whose marriage was on nuclear meltdown, escape from the sorrow that had overwhelmed our household since my sister’s death. In whatever glam city happened to be Somewhere, Anywhere, the other Wonder Blake would go and reinvent herself, become a sophisticated emancipated teen with a hot bod and ridiculous confidence. She could be like some Presidential Fitness teen ambassador; she’d have a kick-ass designer wardrobe and a smile that could light the world on fire. That chick would know how to make new friends like that and she would have guys lining up to date her, instead of the regular ole Wonder Blake, who you could tell guys thought was kinda not bad-looking but why’s she always by herself staring out into space, and anyway isn’t she the girl who used to be on TV, what’s her deal, how’d she get stranded here? The regular ole Wonder Blake had two years of high school left to go, two more years trapped in sleepy Devonport, Massachusetts. Escape for now would have to come from singing aloud at her job at the Dairy Queen, passing the time in her own reverie. And so it happened that I was discovered by Gerald Tiggs, the powerful talent manager, at a chance meeting at said DQ. Tig (as he was known) walked into the DQ at the end of my shift late one Saturday evening. I was mopping the floor, using the mop as a pretend microphone as I strutted across the wet floor, a Discman on my ears as I sang “Smells Like Teen Spirit” out loud—very loudly. My rendition of Kurt Cobain was closer to down-home gospel than to grunge wail. I had no idea a customer was lurking until Katie, my one friend in my family’s new hometown and also my DQ coworker, practically knocked me over, sprung the headphones from my ears, and shouted, “Wonder! The guy’s trying to tal