Accidental Love [Paperback]

It all starts when Marisa picks up the wrong cell phone. When she returns it to Rene, she feels curiously drawn to him. But Marisa and Rene aren't exactly a match made in heaven. For one thing, Marisa is achola; she's a lot of girl, and she's not ashamed of it. Skinny Rene gangles like a sackful of elbows and wears a calculator on his belt. In other words, he's a geek. So why can't Marisa stay away from him?

There are laughs as well as heartbreak in a tale of an unlikely first love.

The tough-girl/good-guy romance is a refreshing twist, and Marisa and Rene are unique and long-overdue characters. --The Bulletin
With humor and insight, [Soto] creates memorable, likable characters. --Booklist

At fourteen Marisa welcomed any excuse to miss school. But today she had a good reason for cutting class. Alicia, her best friend, lay in the hospital with a broken leg and a broken heart, all because her boyfriend had crashed his parents' car when a tire blew. The leg had broken in the crash, but her heart had broken when the glove compartment opened on impact and shot out a photo of stupid Roberto with his arm around another girl.

Marisa was off to give her homegirl a meaningful hug. He's such a shisty rat, she growled as she pictured that no-good Roberto, an average-looking fool whose fingers were always orange from Cheetos. She, too, savored that junk food snack, but-she argued-at least she always licked her fingers clean. But not him! Stupid jerk! Big pendejo! How could Alicia stand his face? She was always treating him to food and paying for gas for their car rides into the country.

Marisa's anger was deflected to a passing station wagon that nearly hit her as she started across the street. You estúpido! she spat as she threw her hands into the air in anger. The pair of eyes she saw in thelÄ