This is a truly excellent coming-of-age/finding-self story.

Paski Archuleta's world goes topsy-turvy when her dad returns to Taos from a trip to LA looking, acting, and behaving like a person gone insane. He's dressing like an idiot, he's acting like an idiot, and to top it all off, he tells her they're moving to LA. Like, immediately.

Paski loves her life in Taos. New Mexico is the only home she's ever known. Her friends are here. Her mountains are here. Not that she has much choice.

The U-haul gets loaded, Paski makes the rounds to say goodbye to her best friends and to Ethan, and off they go.

Her first impressions of California are mixed. On the one hand, there's a lot more nature to Southern California than she was expecting. On the other, everything seems inordinately huge, and everyone drives nice, expensive cars way too fast.

Her first order of business is to ride over to her new school and check it out. Once there, she can't help herself, and shows off her mountain biking skills by going straight down a hill to get to the school yard. This earns her the attention of Chris Cabrera, who takes an immediate liking to her. A feeling which happens to be oh so very mutual.

The Chris Cabrera story line is one of my favorites, as it reminded me a lot of when I met my "one."

Chris is, however, taken by the school's richest, meanest girl. At least, according to Jessica he is. And not only is she the most popular girl--Paski has heard of her, in a roundabout way. Maybe not that she's the National Motocross Champion. But the line of clothes her mom made? Paski's heard of JessWear.

Things go from bad to worse, as her father trades in their Corolla for a huge boat of a car he plans to turn into the Squeegee Mobile, after the character he's come to LA to make into a movie. Now not only is she an apartment girl, she has a vehicle she absolutely can not be seen in.

Her first party goes wrong in about 5 minutes. First with the forced kissing of a girl she doesn't know, then with the drugged drink which turns into a but of a murder attempt as Jessica pushes her into the pool and she finds herself unable to get out. Luckily, Chris dives in to save her, and though her head and face are a bit of a mess, she'll be fine.

Just about her only solace is her bike. And after her first friend, Tina, points out the path near the school, Paski is back in riding heaven. This trail rocks.

She also joins the school paper, an activity she was part of back at home. Much to her chagrin, her first assignment is to cover Jessica's upcoming race. A fact exacerbated by the vision she's been having ever since she first saw Jessica. A vision of her broken and crumpled under her motorbike.

This is definitely a book with a lot of tension and suspense--I think I was actually holding my breath in parts, which isn't so good for an asthmatic with allergies. But I suppose it's good for the author.

Despite all the drama, danger, and insanity of her new life in Aliso Viejo, Paski manages to navigate through and come out on top. It's definitely an incredible ride.