{"id":322,"date":"2016-07-22T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/?p=322"},"modified":"2016-07-20T13:52:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T19:52:24","slug":"what-im-reading-10-steps-to-girlfriend-status-by-cynthia-t-toney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/what-im-reading-10-steps-to-girlfriend-status-by-cynthia-t-toney\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’m Reading – 10 Steps to Girlfriend Status by Cynthia T. Toney"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 Steps to Girlfriend Status\u00a0by Cynthia T. Toney<\/strong><\/a>
\nWrite Integrity Press
\nCategory: Young Adult
\nAuthor’s website:\u00a0http:\/\/www.cynthiattoney.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hi, Aadi here. I’ve got another great book for you to read. Check out the drama created when Wendy decides to dig into the past. This story takes place in Louisiana, now a part of the New Confederacy in my time. I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard the food is amazing.<\/p>\n

\"10<\/p>\n

Wendy Robichaud is on schedule to have everything she wants at the start of high school: two loyal best friends, a complete and happy family, and a hunky boyfriend she\u2019s had a crush on since eighth grade\u2014until she and surrogate grandmother Mrs. Villaturo look at old photo albums together. That\u2019s when Mrs. V “sees” her dead husband and hints at a 1960s scandal down in Cajun country.<\/p>\n

Faster than you can say \u201ccrawdad,\u201d Wendy digs into the scandal and into trouble. She risks losing boyfriend David by befriending Mrs. V\u2019s deaf grandson, alienates stepsister Alice by having a boyfriend in the first place, and upsets her friend Gayle without knowing why.<\/p>\n

Wendy is in for a fight, with her own conscience as well as with Mrs. V’s son, who wants to take Mrs. V to live in Alaska after she’s diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Between the possibility of Mrs. V moving thousands of miles away and the facts Wendy uncovers about the scandal that involves those closest to her, she is on the brink of losing all the friends she\u2019s fought so hard to gain.<\/p>\n

Excerpt from Chapter 1:<\/p>\n

Who would\u2019ve guessed that looking through old photo albums could get me into\u00a0so much trouble?<\/p>\n

It happened to be Friday\u2014the day before the wedding. No, not mine! I\u2019m only\u00a0fourteen, and this is Louisiana, not New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

I arrived on time at LeMoyne High School, via the Mom-mobile, wearing a skirt\u00a0that made the best of summer\u2019s leftover tan. Baseball-player and heart-throbbing hunk\u00a0David Griffin leaned against a tree on the front lawn.<\/p>\n

Steps toward achieving girlfriend status:<\/p>\n

1. Meeting before school (Check.)<\/p>\n

We\u2019d known each other since last year, but at the start of ninth grade our\u00a0friendship expanded like a Cajun cornbread hushpuppy in hot oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Wendy. TGIF,\u201d he shouted.<\/p>\n

Man, his grin killed me. \u201cTGI-uh- TD-uh- BTW,\u201d I countered. It was really hard to\u00a0concentrate when he was all I could see.<\/p>\n

He burst out laughing and ran a hand over his curly brown hair. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank goodness it\u2019s the day before the wedding.\u201d Like always, heat crept into\u00a0my cheeks as I drew near him. I smiled big to camouflage the reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, and I\u2019ll be there with a tie and everything.\u201d His green eyes dazzled me.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless you un-invite me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a chance. I need all the moral support I can get.\u201d I\u2019d never tell him Mom\u00a0allowed me to invite no more than two friends, and he was one of them. If he only knew\u00a0how much I looked forward to seeing him away from his jock buddies.<\/p>\n

We started up the steps to the main entrance as the first leaves of autumn danced\u00a0across our path in the warm breeze.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I might mess up somehow and make you mad today.\u201d He stuck an arm out\u00a0and prevented someone who was coming down the steps from running into me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t wiggle out that easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

We reached an intersection of halls and turned in opposite directions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee you later,\u201d he said over his shoulder.<\/p>\n

It took every ounce of willpower not to look back at him as he walked away. But\u00a0too many pairs of eyes watched, belonging to too many of his friends and teammates\u00a0who\u2019d poke and tease him.<\/p>\n

We weren\u2019t a couple\u2014at least not yet. Why invite ridicule or ruin my chances?<\/p>\n

LeMoyne was three times the size of Bellingrath Junior High, and to say there were a lot\u00a0of pretty girls here was an understatement of gross proportions.<\/p>\n

Have you read this book already? Tell us what you thought of it.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Steps to Girlfriend Status\u00a0by Cynthia T. Toney Write Integrity Press Category: Young Adult Author’s website:\u00a0http:\/\/www.cynthiattoney.com Hi, Aadi here. I’ve got another great book for you to read. Check out the drama created when Wendy decides to dig into the past. This story takes place in Louisiana, now a part of the New Confederacy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What I'm Reading - 10 Steps to Girlfriend Status by Cynthia T. Toney #FridayReads","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-what-im-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/10-Steps-to-Girlfriend-Status-FC-Med.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7xtYd-5c","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnwitzke.com\/CatholicUnderground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}