Zona Lowell is a high school Sophomore and a true New Yorker. Her dream is to become a journalist, as her father is a journalist too. Her mother, who was Greek, has passed away when she was little, and she hardly remembers her.

Her father has planned for them to move to Athens for six months, so he can work there on a news story. When he announces this to Zona, she is not exactly jumping of joy. No, she honestly doesn't want to go to Greece. She doesn't know the family of her mother's family who lives there, who cut of contact with her dad after her mother passed away. And she is also not looking forward to six months without her two best friends Hilary and Matt.

But she steps on the plane to Athens, Greece where she will go to the Greek International School. In Athens, she meets her cousin Yiota, who truly makes her feel at home in Greece. She get's a little inside information and tour of Athens, tells her about the city, eats Greek food for the first time, learns a few Greek words, and finds out more about the current financial crisis in real life. At school she finds out that most of the things are pretty much the same as her high school back in New York. Teachers ans students, pretty much the same. Almost everyone is nice at her new school and almost immediately she find herself in a group of new friends, who take her out in to the city. And when it's her sixteenth birthday, her friends take her out for a real Greek sweet sixteen at a local Bouzoukia. And she even has a special date with Alex, one of the boys from her school at her birthday, and some more kissing follows the weeks following her birthday! She also tries to help a girl from her class who does seem to have an eating disorder.

During her spring break in a tiny village named Heraklion, he finds out that her Greek family isn't what she expected of it. They aren't distant or cold to her at all, and it turns our to be very special when she meets her Greek grandmother for the first time.

The six months in are over when Zona is having a great time with her friends and family. Maybe her time in Greece wasn't so bad after all. It certainly changes Zona a little bit for the better!

I LOVED Freshman Year And Other Unnatural Disasters, so I was very excited to get a chance to review Meredith Zeitlin's new upcoming YA novel. And I LOVED the book just as much as the previous one. Just as Kelsey Finkelstein in Freshman Year.. Zona Lowell is a fun and spunky main character. She is truly not looking forward going to Greece, but she has the time of her life there. I loved how the author created a very lively cast of side characters in the story. From Zona's friends at school to her family and everyone in between; it all felt very realistic .The high paced plot was full of FUN, with some romance and drama mixed in as well, a very well balanced mix. As Zona wants to be a journalist, every chapter there is a little newspaper-style headline about an adventure of Zona, which was also a fun addition to this already brilliant book.

Conclusion: I highly recommend this fun new YA novel, which makes the perfect read for spring 2015!