E K Ballard

Girls, Gifted E K Ballard

What happens when a highly-driven, gifted student is paired with the academically unmotivated school athlete for an English project? They fall in love. Kristin Olson is determined to get into an Ivy League college, even after her family is forced to move from their affluent lifestyle and school for gifted students in Sarasota, Florida, to a mainstream high school in rural New Hampshire. Kristin's sudden weight gain, her mother's overbearing conservative views, and the economic downturn leading up to the Obama-McCain election set the backdrop for this coming-of-age, YA LGBT novel. Jamie Chase is an exceptional athlete whose father only wants her to go to college, but doing the bare minimum in her schoolwork has college coaches wary of recruiting her. Her goal of being the first girl to get the prestigious Twelve Letter Award is in jeopardy when her parents tell her she must have good grades or else they'll make her sit out the basketball season. They both realize that they have something to offer the other: a disciplined tutor for Jamie and an exercise partner and first friend for Kristin. The story places the reader in the middle of a burgeoning relationship between the two very different girls as they discover a connection that goes much deeper than anything either of them has ever experienced before.