Angelo Bastillo has just started high school, and already his life is over: dumped by the dream girl he's been crushing on for years, hating every class, terrorized by twin bullies, and forced to consult a suicide line in lieu of therapy by his overprotective (and incredibly cheap) father. Then he, his best friend Drew Wales and the geeky new kid in school, Lionel "Porno Name" Tang, stumble upon a secret cache of dirty money that can make them rich -- if they can only find a way to steal it. So, they decide to put together a team.

Meet their crew: Portia Wentworth, gorgeous drama club temptress with a secret, now turned con artist. Kyle Williams is their hitman-for-hire computer hacker with a heart of stone. And Charles Crewel, the "nice guy" star football player sidelined with a season ending injury? Well, he's the muscle of the operation -- all 283 bone-crunching pounds of him. When the team adds the suspect assistance of a mysterious senior class mastermind known only as "The Saint", all the pieces begin to fall into place.

Now Angelo is ready to plan an incredible heist to pull off the big score. Everyone is counting on him. But with his daily life full of complicated boy/girl drama, depression, sub-minimum wage "character building", completely unnecessary pop quizzes, and a truly unhealthy but incredibly satisfying amount of videogames, can he finish the job and still manage to finish freshman year?

This "entertaining and brilliantly comic novel"* is sure to appeal to teens, fans of young adult literature, crime buffs, people who still keep old episodes of Leverage on their Tivo (even though their hard drive is getting pretty full) -- basically anyone who ever went to high school and wished it could have been just a little bit more thrilling and a whole lot funnier.

UPDATE: You can watch the trailer for Heist School Freshmen on my Amazon Author Page (click my name at the top of the page.)

* From ReadersFavorite.com review by Julia Hopkinson.