rob&sara.com by P.J. Petersen and Ivy Ruckman

This is a book written as email pen pals and is supposedly the true email correspondents between the two authors. Petersen is "Rob Cruise" a resident at Pine Creek, a type of boarding school for trouble makers of all sorts. Ruckman is "Sara 4348" a girl he decides to email after reading her poem online. A vast majority of the novel is about convince Rob not to push his luck at PC even though he's miserable and about Sara dealing with a move. The novel plays with how truthful a person honestly is in email (Rob sometimes creates new identities for himself) and, of course, young love (because you can't have two pen pals of the opposite sex not fall in love - yes that was a double negative). The novel starts off slow because it is just an account of everyday teenage life but it does pick up (a bit). The line between truth and reality could be pushed a bit more - or at least contemplated more seriously. The characters are just too trusting to not consider the truth soon. Even when Sara realizes that Rob might not be the man she just brushes it off. It also seemed as if the lead up to their love was missing. Correspondence doesn't automatically equal love, so I would have liked a little bit more reason for the connection. There were a few emails to Sara's friend Angie, so it very easily could have been included as her musings for this man. It's just hard to see at what point the characters go from "I like talking to this person" to "I love this person." Nonetheless, it was an interesting read and I like the email format.
MMK