Waiting on Wednesday (#2): First World Problems by Leigh Ann Kopans

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First World Problems by Leigh Ann Kopans
(A Solving For Ex companion novel)
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: September 2nd, 2014

Sofia's had a really rough year - busted for cheating at prep school, dumped - dumped! - for the first time ever, and her new non-profit working stepmother is turning out to be an uppity bitch.

She deserves to treat herself. But when she throws herself a birthday party with 20 of her closest friends in Paris and (accidentally!) maxes out her dad's credit card in the process, he’s had enough of her attitude. As punishment, he switches her planned gap year touring Europe to one doing community service work with the evil stepmother’s relief organization in Guyana.

The rural village of Dabu needs help in every area from education to getting safe drinking water. But Sofia’s more concerned about her roommate Callum, the gardening expert, who calls Sofia "Princess" and scoffs at her distaste for sweaty, muddy, iguana-eating, outhouse-using life in Guyana.

Eventually, life on the equator, her work in the village, and especially Callum - with his brooding eyes and bewitching New Zealand accent - start to grow on Sofia. Though life is rough in Guyana, Sofia thinks the villagers are getting by just fine - until a nighttime walk shows Sofia the dark and desperate struggle girls in the village face every day.

Determined to change the girls’ futures, she comes up with a strategy to help the village. But what starts out as a plan to convince Callum and her father that she’s fallen in love with Guyana, turns into the realization that maybe she’s falling for Callum, too. And that by changing these girls’ lives, she might also be changing her own.

Why I Want to Read This Book

I LOVED Solving for Ex, and I think this will be really interesting, getting to read something from Sofia's POV. I know it'll be tough at first, but I really hope to see some major character development, and it seems as if there will be a major change, so fingers crossed!

Lastly, I thought Leigh Ann Kopans wrote about experiences such as depression really well in Solving for Ex, and having worked in a poor area, I'm interested to see how Kopans will write it this time. I know Sofia is nothing like me, at least in Solving for Ex, but I wonder if Sofia will have similar experiences and thoughts, whether it be in the beginning or all the way at the end.

I'm so excited, and I have high expectations! (Also, my review for Solving for Ex will be up in February around the time of its release, so be on the lookout for it.)