After a snowboarding accident, Syrah Cheng, a billionaire's daughter, must rehabilitate both her knee and her self-esteem while forging relationships with those who accept her for who she is. - (Baker & Taylor)

With everyone assuming that she is spoiled because of her father's incredible fortune, Syrah Cheng finds it difficult to make any real friends and so escapes to the mountains to get the happiness she seeks, but when a snowboarding accident keeps her away from the place she loves, Syrah is left to deal with emotions she has long ignored. - (Baker & Taylor)

Everybody thinks Syrah is the golden girl. After all, her father is Ethan Cheng, billionaire, and she has everything any kid could possibly desire: a waterfront mansion, jet plane, and custom-designed snowboards. But most of what glitters in her life is fool's gold. Her half-siblings hate her, her best friend's girlfriend is ruining their friendship, and her own so-called boyfriend is only after her for her father's name. When her broken heart results in a snowboarding accident that exiles her from the mountains-the one place where she feels free and accepted for who she is, not what she has-can Syrah rehab both her busted-up knee, and her broken heart?


Justina Chen Headley writes with an engaging wit and a powerful, distinct voice. Her first novel, Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) was a Border's Original Voices nominee, a Book Sense pick, and received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly: "Headley makes an impressive debut with this witty, intimate novel." - (Hachette Book Group)

Justina Chen Headley grew up near Buffalo, NY and San Francisco. After attending Stanford University she spent time in New York and Sydney, Australia before settling near Seattle, Washington with her husband and two children. This is Justina's second YA novel. Her first, Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies), was a Book Sense pick. - (Hachette Book Group)

Booklist Reviews

From the moment that "snowboarding became as natural as walking," 15-year-old Syrah Cheng has wanted to be a professional rider. But after she narrowly survives an avalanche, her parents bar her from the sport. Syrah misses the anonymity and escape she found on the slopes. As the daughter of a billionaire cell-phone magnate, she feels misunderstood in public and abandoned at home by her workaholic, absentee parents, and her isolation intensifies after her only close friend, Age, stops returning her calls. Then Syrah develops a close friendship with fellow-student Lillian, whose sister is dying of cancer. A project to help Lillian's family becomes the energizing force that pulls Syrah toward new discoveries about her own family, cultural heritage, and strengths. Writing in Syrah's witty, engaging voice, Headley offers a stirring, layered novel about a Chinese American girl who rejects the false glitter of her superrich Seattle community and resolves to use her advantages to create large-scale change and relationships that are deep and true. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

Syrah wants to be more than just the daughter of billionaire Ethan Cheng; she used to be a killer snowboarder, until a boy destroyed her trust and a horrific accident ruined her knee. Headley improves upon the tired "little-rich girl" story using lucid language and a convincing, feisty teen narrator. Syrah pulls readers into her über-rich world, a fascinating, foreign place with unique frustrations and pressures. Perfection, decorum and frigidity rule the Cheng dynasty. Family gatherings occur in her father's conference room, where Syrah's older half-siblings make tense, formal business presentations and sneer at her. Only her ancient nanny, Bao Mu, brings any normalcy or comfort. Common, complicated teen issues with body image and first love allow young adults to identify with this decidedly tough but vulnerable character. When Syrah unearths family secrets that date back to the Chinese Revolution, she begins to see her parents in a new light and to see herself as her own person. Headley brings Chinese history, the implications of wealth and the power of self-acceptance into soft focus, nudging reflective readers to delve deeper after they reluctantly turn the last page. (Fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus 2007 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Adding to a category overrun with poor-little-rich-girl plotlines, Headley (Nothing But the Truth [and a few white lies] ) crafts a tale that will stand out in the crowd by offering a good dose of girl power and an intriguing family backstory. Fifteen-year-old Syrah Cheng, daughter of a billionaire mobile phone magnate, has blown out her knee after a snowboarding accident and can no longer hit the slopes. She still feels shattered by the realization that her would-be boyfriend was only after her father's money, and is too afraid to reciprocate her best friend's overtures toward another kind of relationship ("Why chance turning Age into a here-today-gone-tomorrow boyfriend?"). Add to that two absentee parents and a pair of adult half-siblings who hate her guts, and Syrah, the narrator, is sinking into a full-on pity party, finding respite only in her manga journal. But even when Syrah complains, the tone stays tart, conveying a tough-girl personality that leaves room for vulnerability. As the novel shifts from Syrah's self-pity to her self-critique, its scope grows more interesting, especially when Syrah learns more about her family. The outsize scale of the family fortune and prestige, combined with the gratifying empowerment theme, will attract (and hold) Meg Cabot fans. Ages 12-up. (Jan.)

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 9 Up— Syrah Cheng's struggle to fit into the stylish dress her mother bought for her to wear to her father's 70th birthday bash is synonymous with her struggle to fit in with her family in general. The teenage daughter of business tycoon Ethan Cheng and his second wife, Syrah is scorned by her older half siblings, and she would rather spend her spare time snowboarding or drawing manga than shopping for fancy clothes and attending benefits with her family. However, since an accident damaged her chances for a pro snowboarding career, she is not sure that she fits in with her snowboarding friends, either. At loose ends when she discovers that a friend's young sister is seriously ill with leukemia, she rallies to put together a benefit to raise money for the family. For once, the Cheng name is an asset, and Syrah finds herself connecting with her half sister and reconnecting with her mother. Although Headley's novel is slow to start, once it picks up steam, the narrative becomes rich. An overheard conversation leads Syrah to investigate her mother's history and leads her to a new understanding of the woman who was given away by her mother during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and raised by an abusive aunt. Like Amy Tan, Headley incorporates intergenerational and intercultural conflict into a novel of personal growth and self-discovery.—Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston