The novel deals with many vital themes, but I recommend it especially for students in high school & college who may have mixed feelings about stretching their wings for personal achievement.
The protagonist is a talented high school student from Miami who is accepted in an elite liberal arts college in upstate New York. Her recently divorced parents are immigrants from Cuba and can provide little financial and emotional support for their daughter. Her first semester almost ends in expulsion for a plagiarism violation. She is failing in her classes, and she is unable to break or modify relationships with family members and a boyfriend in Miami. The change in climate and social habits of the majority of students and the paternalism of the administration and faculty all alienate her. Nevertheless, she is able, through brute force of will, to pass her classes. That achievement gives her the confidence that she "belongs" in the school.
In the next semester, she takes a class in which she blossoms intellectually. If nothing else, read Chapter 25, and have faith that if you can just hang in long enough at university and challenge yourself by taking classes which may inspire you, you can excel.
Universities don't admit people (with the possible exception of the blue-blood legacy students) who can't do the work. Many people do enter university inexperienced in the culture of academia, especially members of racial, ethnic and religious minorities without family histories of higher education and money attending predominantly white, Christian institutions. Those students may encounter great difficulty as a result. Some schools do well in supporting them; others don't. My message, and I think a message of this novel, is "hold on. Find a friend who wants you to succeed. Find a professor whose work excites you and under whose supervision you can thrive. You do have it in you."
This novel isn't only a Hallmark novel of inspiration. But you can get that out of it, and many other things in addition.
