National Network for Equitable Library Service

Ex-best-friends-turned-rivals team up to beat and expose the guy they've been dating, in this romance perfect for fans of She Gets the Girl and "highly recommended" by School Library Journal in a starred review! Meghna Rahman is tired of constantly being compared to her infuriatingly perfect ex-best friend, Rani, who always makes it into the Young Scientist Exhibition. This year, Meghna is finally accepted into the competition, but doesn't make it to the final round like her boyfriend Zak does. And, of course, Rani too. Rani Choudhury is tired of feeling like she doesn't have much say in her life—not when it comes to how her mom wants her to act or how her parents encourage her to date close family friend Zak. She would much rather focus on her coding, especially once she's chosen to compete in the European Young Scientist Exhibition. When Meghna and Rani figure out that Zak has been playing them both, they decide to do something no one would see coming: they team up. They'll compete in the EYSE as partners, creating an app that exposes cheaters and a project that exposes Zak. But with years of silence and pressure between them, working together will prove difficult—especially once they start to go from rivals to friends and realize their feelings may be even more than platonic. This is a book of fiction, but it deals with real issues, including instances of colorism, sexism, gaslighting, cheating, and cheating partners.