Everything You Want

By Barbara Shoup

With high school mercifully drawing to a close, Emma's only question is, "What next? And can it please be completely unlike what happened before?" Then one lucky little lotto ticket seems to give the answer-or does it?

Everything You Want is a story about what happens to an average family when money is suddenly no object. Although Emma is bright and creative and has a supportive family, she isn't exactly excited about life after high school. She's got her share of unresolved issues, including a disastrous ending to her crush of a lifetime, which left her with a broken heart and a bloody nose (how do you move on when the only boy you've ever wanted to date punches you in the face?). Then Emma's family wins fifty million dollars in the lottery, but instead of making everything better, it just makes everything more complicated.

Everything You Want is the story of a young woman trying to figure out what she needs when, suddenly, she can have anything she wants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
• Release date: Dec 8, 2010
• ISBN: 9780738729190

Barbara Shoup

Barbara Shoup is a critically acclaimed and award-winning author of novels for teenagers and adults. Shoup has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Master Artist Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writers Award. Her novel Wish You Were Here was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. It will be published in paperback by Flux in May 2008. She lives in Indiana.

Reviews for Everything You Want

[abbylibrarian_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's all because of a goose that Emma's family wins the lottery. Fifty million dollars. You'd think it would make life easier, but suddenly everything gets more complicated. Emma's been immersed in her first semester of college and it's Not Going Well. Her best friend from high school isn't speaking to her because she told him she was in love with him. Emma stays in the psychology lab late on Friday night because her roommate's always making out with her boyfriend. Emma feels lost and alone and she wishes more than anything that she could return to the time when she was small, when her parents took care of her, when things were simple. Everything You Want is a story about getting, well, everything you want. And then realizing that it's changed you and the things you used to want no longer apply. As a person who felt plenty lost myself during my early college career, I really identified with Emma's struggles. She felt very real to me and I liked that she described her life as both depressing and hilarious. Other characters in the book are pretty well developed, especially her family members who each have different problems adjusting to the money. I also loved that Barbara Shoup painted such a vibrant picture of life at Indiana University. She made me feel like I was walking down Kirkwood all over again. :)