The Gap Year by Sarah Bird

This book is a great read for anyone who loves mother-daughter stories.  It is both hilarious and heartbreaking, as single mom Cam Lightsey and her seventeen-year old daughter Aubrey learn how to let go in that moment before college empties the nest.  There are two points of view in the storyline.  Cam a divorcee still carries a torch for the ex who dumped her and at times feels like a misfit.  She has give up her dreams and only wants Aubrey to get a good education.  Cam is having a growing suspicion that Aubrey has no intention of attending college at all.  Aubrey is tired of being dutiful, geeky, and grade-grubbing.  She wants to explore real life and meeting Tyler, the football idol with a dangerous past doesn’t help.  Aubrey rebels against everything her mother believes in and becomes a sullen teen nightmare.  On the sly, she contacts her father, who left the mother and daughter to join a bizarre religious sect.  The tension builds as Cam and Aubrey learn to see each other in a different way.