All About Vee

At 18, Veronica, aka Vee, is the star of her small Arizona town's community theater, but when the next production offers no female roles—and when her widower father decides to marry his longtime fiancée, making Vee feel “no longer needed”—she moves to Los Angeles, to act. The decision is cinched not only because a high school friend claims acting success there, but because Vee discovers her mysterious mother had followed the same path. Once in L.A., 217-pound Vee faces size-based rejections (“We need people who are TV fat, not really fat,” a casting director tells her), has to take a job at a coffee shop with other Hollywood hopefuls—and slowly discovers her friend is sabotaging her. Readers will like Vee despite her incredible naïveté, but Purtill (Love, Meg ) mires the story in its subplots. The story line about her mother, whose Hollywood journey Vee follows through old letters written to her father, surfaces abruptly, making Vee's longing for connection seem inauthentic. And even Vee's biggest fans will find the quick, happy ending too scripted. Ages 12–up. (Apr.)