The Year of Secret Assignments, by Jaclyn Moriarty

Today I have the pleasure of crossing off my TBR list something that has been on there forEVER:

The Year of Secret Assignments, by Jaclyn Moriarty (Don't you LOVE her last name?!)
Young Adult, 2004
(1st book in what isn't technically a series, but what follows are other novels that use the same setting/characters...etc.)

A tenth grade English teacher attempts to unite feuding schools by launching a pen-pal project. Best friends Cassie, Emily and Lydia initiate the correspondence, and are answered by Matthew, Charlie and Seb. Emily and Lydia are more than pleased with their matches, but quiet Cassie has a frightening experience with Matthew. When Lydia and Emily discover that Matthew has threatened their fragile friend, the Ashbury girls close ranks, declaring an all-out war on the Brookfield boys. Soon, the couples are caught up in everything from car-jacking and lock-picking, to undercover spying and identity theft.

This was completely a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I loved the banter back and forth between letters, the crazy 'secret assignments' and in some cases the cute falling for each other when they decided to meet. I was a bit put off by some of the language, and while the bantering remained cute, it was used with most characters making some of them seem a bit clone like. I felt like Cassie's situation was almost too serious to discuss in the book....and yet, it wasn't. The Matthew situation was almost too unrealistic....and yet, it wasn't. It's very hard for me to know just how I feel about a book that closed both good and bad for me. I can say I probably won't read any more of this 'series' per se, but then...we all know I'm not much of a series person at any rate, right?

Graded a C+.