Poor Penny. History remembers her as the extremely uptight editor of The Oracle, and her one chance to break free of this mold is completely ruined by the fact that her book is the one right before another character dies. No one remembers Penny's book for much other than the painfully dorky looking cover.

Which is a shame, since SA isn't as bad as they'd have you believe. Penny puts out a personal ad, but refuses to dumb it down or pretty it up, figuring that she wants a guy to fall for her. The real Penny- quirky, a bit dorky, extremely articulate, and in general a bit different from the rest of the girls at SVH. Luckily, Penny finds someone almost immediately and they click!

Too bad he doesn't really exist. He's just a prank pulled by a group of guys on the tennis team with too much time on their hands. Or... is he? One of those guys, Neil [usually known as being Jessica's fall-back date] actually starts to fall for Penny.

We avoid all sorts of usual story clunkers when Neil confesses fairly quickly and Penny stays true to herself without really considering changing much more than a bit of makeup. And anyone who denies Penny the right to want a guy at seventeen is asking a bit too much for a loner girl in the 1980's, who is surrounded by all sorts of idiots falling in love at the drop of a hat. ( )

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