Son of the Mob

by Gordon Korman

Genre: Realistic fiction
Age: 11+

Vince Luca just wants to be normal. He dreams of dating Angela O'Bannon, the most popular girl in school. His big brother Alex keeps trying to hook Vince up, because he thinks Vince's love life is his love life. He's trying his hardest in football at school. Only, the chances are just about zero of Vince ever being truly normal - especially since his dad is a powerful mafia boss.
His dad already knows Vince wants nothing to do with the family business, but his work keeps sneaking into Vince's life. Then Vince meets Kendra Bightly - a girl who he really, truly falls in love with. It should be easy, but it isn't. It would be hard to explain his father's occupation to any girl, but it's particularly hard with Kendra... especially seeing as her dad is the FBI agent who wants to get rid of Vince's dad once and for all.

Just like most of Gordon Korman's books, this one is HILARIOUS!!! Vince is in a sticky situation, which allows for tons of humor, and Korman adds a generous helping. Even my mom, who rarely laughs at books, found herself laughing just about every five seconds. Also the plot is really great - it's sort of like Romeo and Juliet, only modernized, less tragic, and nobody dies. But the idea of people in love from two families who (in this case, somewhat indirectly) hate each other is the same. Overall, though, even if the plot was really bad (though it isn't), the humor would save it from collapsing. Actually, if you like humor, read lots of Gordon Korman. He's really great for that kind of thing. He also wrote No More Dead Dogs, which I reviewed also on this site.