Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley

Main Character: 15-year-old Syrah Cheng, Chinese-American daughter of a multi-billionaire cell phone mogul
Location: Washington State
Time period: Contemporary
Genre: YA Fiction, Sports--Snowboarding

Syrah Cheng is a poor little rich girl--or so she thinks. Her father is too busy being a captain of industry to pay any attention to her. Her mother is too busy shopping for antiques to pay any attention to her except to complain about her weight (not that she's overweight--she's just more sturdy than her beautiful and tiny mother.) Her half-siblings hate her because her mother broke up their parents' marriage and they think she's a spoiled brat. She has a hard time making friends because most people just see her as a stepping stone to get to her father, just like Jared, her first so-called boyfriend. And now, the one thing she loves--skateboarding--is taken away from her because she has injured her knee and her father now decrees that it's too dangerous.

With her life seemingly in shambles, Syrah has to re-think things, learn to take a chance on people, and, most of all, trust her own judgement. It's not easy, but she learns to combine her love of snowboarding with her family's philanthropic endeavors and along the way comes to understand her mother and her half-sister, Grace.

I liked this book, and I like Syrah--she's a mopey and petulant teen at first, but like the grape that she's named for, she's a survivor.

Justina Chen Headley is one of the authors behind readergirlz, a great place to find YA books for girls.