Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

Here's a blurb from Ms. Zago Rosenthal's website: Ari Mitchell feels invisible at her Brooklyn high school. Her hair is too flat, her style too preppy, and her personality too quiet. And outside school, Ari feels outshined by her beautiful, confident best friend, Summer. Their friendship is as complex and confusing as Ari’s relationship with her troubled older sister, Evelyn, a former teenage mom whose handsome firefighter husband fills Ari’s head with guilty fantasies.


When an unexpected inheritance enables Ari to transfer to an elite Manhattan prep school, she makes a wealthy new friend, Leigh. Leigh introduces Ari to the glamorous side of New York—and to her gorgeous cousin, Blake. Ari doesn't think she stands a chance, but amazingly, Blake asks her out. As their romance heats up, they find themselves involved in an intense, consuming relationship. Ari’s family worries that she is losing touch with the important things in life, like family, hard work, and planning for the future. Meanwhile, Summer warns her that what she feels for Blake is just an infatuation. Not real love. But Ari’s world is awash with new colors, filled with a freshness and an excitement she hasn’t felt in years.

When misfortune befalls Blake’s family, he pulls away, and Ari's world drains of color. As she struggles to get over the breakup, Ari must finally ask herself: were their feelings true love . . . or something else?
 
My Take
 
It's 1985; the year I graduated.  Ari is struggling to find her niche.  She transfers to an elite prep school and that niche seems even further away.  Then she meets Leigh.  She begins gaining more independence and more confidence.
 
Then Ari meets Leigh's cousins.  She and Blake tumble head-long into a relationship.  Ari is beginning to think she has found where she belongs.  But things begin to change as the outside world affects them.  Along the way Ari learns what true love is and what it isn't.  She grows so much and is so strong.  This book was a little jewel.  I'm giving it 5 kisses!