Teen girls looking for a light romance will enjoy Catch a Falling Star by Kim Culbertson.  Carter Moon is beginning to enjoy the summer between her junior and senior year when her small town of Little, California is no longer “little” with the likes of super teen throb Adam Jakes and his entourage beginning to shoot his movie there.  Carter is not the pop culture monger that her friend Chloe is.  She prefers a simple life where one can go out on the roof top at night and seek solice in the stars. Her aversion to that pop culture type of life is what makes her the perfect “character” for Carter’s manager to hire to be his new girlfriend – clean cut, earthy, non-drama queen and in need of some money to keep her brother who has a gambling addiction out of trouble.

At first both are a little stand-offish but Carter is a “tell it like it is” girl who decides to make the most of the new job.  She can’t share her secret about it being a “fake” relationship with any of her friends.  This is only one small emotional conflict though.  Of a larger scope is Carter’s decision to stop dancing the previous year.  This was an activity that could have taken her across the nation to an arts focused college but one dance teacher allowed her to drop her confidence in herself.  As Carter and Jake begin to learn more about each other, they begin to counsel one another in their issues such as Carter’s dancing future and the sparks begin to be set off onto a real romantic interest in one another.  Add in some additional words of wisdom from Carter’s best boyfriend, Alien Drake, nicknamed Alien because he too loves to study the stellar universe, and readers will be contemplating our social media driven world where no one is “…ever knows what’s real.”

Students trying to make decisions about their next step on the path after high school will relate to Carter’s crisis of her soul.  Those who pine for a soft touch romance will find it here.  Slightly “Hallmarkish”, Catch a Falling Star is an additional purchase for most libraries.