Plot summary
The novel is narrated by Eleanor Allard, a.k.a. Ellie. The book opens with Ellie's family holiday to Wales where she meets a nerdy boy named Dan. Dan falls for Ellie and asks her out but his feelings are not reciprocated and Ellie turns him down. Ellie arrives back at school after the summer holidays to find one of her best friends, Nadine, has a new boyfriend named Liam. Her other best friend, Magda, soon starts dating a boy named Greg. Feeling left out, Ellie makes up a fictional boyfriend, who is based on a young, good looking man that she sees nearly every day on her way to school. She names her fictional boyfriend Dan (like the nerdy boy she met in Wales) and describes him as 15 years old and handsome. Magda and Ellie soon start to suspect that Liam is pressuring Nadine for sex as Nadine starts to act out of character after spending time with Liam. Magda mentions her and Ellie's concerns to Nadine which upsets her and causes the girls to fall out, though they later reconcile.
One night, to celebrate Magda's birthday, the three girls sneak out to a night club called "Seventh Heaven" and it is confirmed that Liam was indeed only using Nadine for sex when they meet some other girls that had been Liam's conquests. Nadine confronts Liam and he states he had planned to break up with Nadine after she 'put out' (had sex with him).
At a party thrown by a mutual friend of the trio, Dan turns up unannounced, and Ellie is mortified and has to come clean about the 'Real Dan', however, when gatecrashers arrive at the party and cause trouble, Dan intervenes and saves the day. To Ellie's surprise, this impresses Magda and Nadine and causes Ellie to rethink her first impressions of Dan. The book ends with Ellie and Dan's first kiss.
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